What does it take to conceive a Hindi film without Shah Rukh Khan? (Final Part)

PART-3: THE PASSIONATE GAMBLERS

After that I consciously decided to work at the grass root. Instead of pursuing big banners, big names & so called big players, I thought, I rather should invest my energy with unknown directors & filmmakers who in their eagerness to get noticed in the over crowded, glamorous hub of tinsel town were more open & willing to experiment and had the energy & drive to swim against the current.

Now to be in such a club had its limitations. Debutants seldom get decent budgets to work on, the number of shooting days given to them are quite less and later on, since their projects doesn’t have Shah Rukh Khan they face a world of difficulties to get their films released. Victor (Vijay Krishn Acharya) has been a glorious exception, what he got for Tashan, even Adi Chopra dint had for his debut. But see what Victor did with that, he made life difficult for the debutants to follow.

I got associated with an energetic assistant director from the camp of the great man, I mentioned in my earlier post. Initially my appreciation of this assistant director was only coz he was the only one I knew then who’d refused the great man on his face to start his independent career from his factory premise.

The young AD showed me the notes he had made for his debut film. I was very impressed as the idea he was toying with, could really be made into a different kind of film. We worked hard to sell the idea through and luckily found a producer too. Only much later I realized that this young guy was actually trying to copy an English film. But I continued as I thought, at least he was trying to offer some new story to the Hindi audience. He smartly duped me in his second film too where he made me work on a script copied from a Korean film. Jolted a bit this time, I continued as again he was trying to introduce a different kind of narrative to our films. Both the films are almost ready for release right now but are lying in cans for different reasons.

First one stalled cause the producer who had spend less than a crore on the making of the film turned greedy, bloated his film budget on papers and approached the market asking for a price which was more than thrice the actual cost of the film. As a result our hard work gone in vain due to the delay caused by producer’s silly attitude. But it taught us many a valuable lessons on the short comings of such individual producers- they tend to look at films as a dhanda to make fast bucks which jeopardizes many promising careers.

Luckily second one had a sensible guy behind producer’s desk. Its here I met Irfan Kamal, the creative producer of my friend’s second film. I found him passionate about the film he chose to produce. He took the film to Bangkok, gave the director the best he could, in terms of locations, freedom to shoot, stock and choice of actors. But finally by the time the principal shooting got over, one of its actors, Irfan Khan became a star. From 15 odd lakhs his price, according to him scales up to 3 crores. Bangkok Blues, that’s what the film is called, started looking to this Khan as a small project not worthy of release. He started shying away from finishing the dubbing of the film. The film is completed since over a year now and the crew is still awaiting for Irfan Khan to find time to dub for it. That’s another pitfall of working with an independent producer; they can be easily taken hostage by any so-called star worth any penny for any damn illogical reason in the world. What a shame!

Despite this Irfan Kamal, who once wanted to make his debut with a love story starring Salman Khan & Deepika Padukone decided to make Thanks Maa when he felt that the time for it has arrived. A Salman Khan starrer would have been a safer bet any day than an expensive film starring street kids but the man chose to go with the later.

That’s my answer to the question I raised 2 posts ago. What does it take to conceive a film without Shah Rukh Khan? The answer is, it takes lot of passion, power of conviction and a strong love for good cinema.

Lot of troubles we faced during the making of Thanks Maa. I’ll brief you about them in my subsequent posts.

Let us all see what fate this step of defiance against the prevailing norms shall met.

May God bless Irfan Kamal and film makers like him who doesn’t fret on hearing an original idea but jump to take gamble on their lives to make it a reality.

I’ll tell you about the birth of a screenplay in my next post.

Vishal

What does it take to conceive a Hindi film without Shah Rukh Khan?

PART-2: THE REAL PLAYERS

While I am writing this, Vijay Tendulkar is lying dead in Pune, a great loss for Indian dramatic writing. An eccentric genius, Tendulkar was known for his rare insight into human nature, his courage of conviction and unconventional portrayal of characters. Ghasiram Kotwal (controversial for its portrayal of marathi hero Nana Phadanwis as a lecher) & Sakharam Binder (banned for obscenity) remained great pieces of fearless dramatic writing which shall inspire many a generations of writers to dare look beyond the obvious & cultural stereotypes. I offer my sincere condolences to the departed genius.

Coming back to the question I raised in my earlier post…

So you luckily clear your way up to the next level of hierarchy after realizing that the members of the club comprising of Ghosts from the Christmas Past are no longer the real players in the biz.

Then who are the real players? You search around and spot the filmmakers announcing almost one new film a week in the trade papers.

They have the moolah, the stars, and the proverbial reigns of the industry-wagon and thus you believe that they will surely have the guts to venture into the unknown, to try something really path-breaking.

Lucky enough for me that soon I got introduced to this suave, stylist, ‘Shiva’ among the filmmakers, a God Father for many a debutants, who was trying to introduce the notion of ‘factory-consistency’ to the art of film making.

Something fresh was happening there, at least hoards of struggling actors and technicians gathered for a glimpse of the man outside his office compound thought so. I was given a story idea about a haunted house built on a graveyard where a writer along with his doctor wife and a 5 year old son comes to stay. It was strange but the great man with 12 films on role at that time, had 7 of them based on ideas about the bhais (the underworld stories) and rest on bhoots (the horror ones).

Anyway I developed a draft which the great man approved in one go. He used to be very clear about what he wanted in his films. Then the great man struck one of his many multi-crore deals with some corporate honcho and in order to put the corporate money at some good use, he suddenly decided to raise the quality of all his productions which was by introducing or increasing sfx, gfx (special effects etc.) things in all his films… irrespective of their necessity in the script.

So, I was summoned back at the factory for another round of narration. This time the great man found the screenplay less exciting. In his typical laconic style he briefed me, “there should be a moment every 7 minute of the film which should shit scare the audience… something which should make them pee in their pants.” When I tried to reason him quoting the basic logic of the story and natural flow of the screenplay, comes a classic reply from the great man, “fuck the logic… fuck the screenplay… do as I told you to do…”

That turned to be my last meeting with him. The great man last heard is still trying to figure out, what the fuck does ‘content’ means in context to cinema.

My familiarity with some of the ghosts from the Christmas past paid and soon I got introduced to another big player, another factory owner, who had no pretensions of being a great or an ethical man. I found him a normal, down-to-earth, cool chap who should be in the Guinness Book for having the largest collection of pirated DVDs at home.

He had smartly placed on his desk, a colored print out of some reader’s comment at some filmi site on the net where the person has compared our DVD collector with Quintin Tarantino for his excellent rip off of Reservoir Dogs into probably his all time favorite Hindi flick. This way I thought, our DVD collector should be compared with Oliver Stone too for his rip off of U-Turn and with that great Korean director of Old Boy and so by the time he’ll end his career he must be hailed as the greatest director of the world… mind boggling career plan.

Anyway I met him to narrate an ‘original’ screenplay of mine. The man listened very patiently with a perpetual stressed out look on his face. I thought it must be because of my bad narration. But I hadn’t laughed this mad the way I laughed later, on the innocent reply the man gave after I finished narrating my script. He asked me, “Who’ll visualize it?”

I was jolted by his response initially and replied, “the director of course!” He continued, “ya… but…I don’t see any references to this script of yours! Why don’t you watch this film (he handed me over a DVD) and tell me what you think about it?”

But the million dollars worth learning experience was that expression of fear on the face of a young film maker on hearing an original screenplay. That meeting really taught me something valuable and that was, changes doesn’t happen over night… for centuries old mindsets to change- collective efforts should be done in right direction… no individual can induce even a dent in the system until he/she is backed by popular support, the lifeline of entertainment industry.

‘With huge money & huge mass support comes huge responsibility, Sir’, one young and happening film maker once told me to support his argument that a remake of a tried & tested subject is any day safer than a No Smoking (an unsuccessful experiment done by Anurag Kashyap) or a Dharam (Bharati Talwar’s critically acclaimed film which didn’t raked in much money at the B.O.).

I couldn’t agree less on that with that film maker. Who wants to experiment irresponsibly on other people’s money? But its business of entertainment my friend, you can’t blindly apply logic learned at MBA courses here. It’s not the money but the story which rules the roost here, money only follows. Huge responsibility means, responsibility to cater fresh stories with fresh approach which should cater to the entertainment needs of the contemporary society. If only they had time and patience to listen.

(To be continued.)

Vishal

What does it take to conceive a Hindi film without Shah Rukh Khan*?

PART-1: THE FORMULA- IT'S FORM, FUNCTION & FORMULATORS

Hindi films are primarily formula films… everything here is scientific i.e. works best within the variables of its formula. Which scientific approach is followed to concoct this formula? To know the answer we must have to know the scientists behind the formula first.

Let me explain this by quoting my own experience of the city (Mumbai) when I first arrived here some six years ago. I came here with, what I thought were the ideas that will change the face of Indian cinema … Fresh outlook, enthusiasm and energy to make a difference and also to get accepted in an almost century old system of Hindi film making.

Now when you are pregnant with ideas you are desperate to deliver too. You start speaking out of turn without judging the listeners. The listeners, mostly Bollywood veterans, always seem to a fresher to be the best ears in town. So you pour, pour and pour till you force them to pick up their dilapidated mobile phones, open the contact list in it and give you a few references to the veterans relaxing on the next level of hierarchy.

The next level is the club of ghosts from the Christmas past. Now you start meeting and knowing some well known names of the past. They are filmmakers who’ll use Chi-chi instead of Govinda, Bebo instead of Kareena and Amitji or Bachchan instead of Amitabh Bachchan, in their talks. You’ll feel secure in their company, suspend all your disbeliefs for a moment and your heart will tell you to listen more than speak.

Which fool would doubt or interrupt when the man who made Inkar, Satte Pe Satta etc or the guy who shot Mr. India, Arjun, Dil etc or the much respected television director who made Circus (with Shah Rukh), speaks? So you listen earnestly to learn what appears to you as the valuable tricks of surviving & succeeding in the trade.

You feel honored & obliged working for them on their next big project with some of the biggest names in business. The last big thing these veterans did was when you were in primary school, but you are too overawed by them to think on that line. They encourage you with an occasional pat on the back for your revolutionary ideas but then lead you smartly to their own terrain of comfort- the formula.

Allow me to explain this smart play with an example. Let’s see, you are given a story idea to work upon. Maestros always have a few thousand great ideas which if made shall break all box office records. Anyway, you are given a story idea which though seems attractive is full of dangers of leading you to the clichés of Hindi commercial cinema. You decide to give the screenplay a fresh approach and you start with giving every stereotypical situation a deliberate spin, making characters a bit more contemporary and interesting. Now you show your version to the maestro,

The maestro appreciates and acknowledges your effort in such a melodramatic fashion with superlative praises ranging from mind-blowing to fantabulous, that the rebel-with-a-cause in you goes numb. Now the maestro suggests a few changes here and there to make the screenplay better and more suitable for, say Aamir Khan. Now you cant argue cause the maestro knows Aamir better than you do. So you begin to listen again.

Now for each change that the maestro suggests, he’ll provide a story from his glorious past to back it up. He’ll say things like, when Mansoor (Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar fame) narrated to me the script (of Akele Hum Akele Tum), I told him, ‘boss, you are showing an Indian mother leaving her child to pursue her dreams… our audience will not accept it. But Mansoor didn’t budge. See what happened! The film sank. Mother, my dear, you can’t fool around with a mother’s image in Indian culture and Aamir agreed. Now back to the scene in this brilliant screenplay of you, involving the hero & his mother, what I want you to do is…’

And you make the required changes without creating any fuss. Then a few more and more till you realize that you have ended up writing a script which is no different from those formula films which embarrassed you to such an extent that you took up writing to do a better service to your beloved Indian cinema. Finally, Aamir Khan will tell you in a more politically correct manner that he has no time to act in the maestro’s film because of his earlier commitments though he loved the idea. And with it you one and a half year of labor is lost.

Anyway, the point is, this is how and this is where the formula behind our films originates, propagates and auto-install itself in the psyches of young Turks who have no other way to scale up but through this hierarchical club of the maestros. Losing out their originality, they take refuge in the formula and then we read some west-bound star quoting Alfred Hitchkok in his blog- “three ingredients of a good film are:- 1. a good script. 2. a good script 3. a good script”.

May God bless them all!

(to be continued.)

Vishal

*Shah Rukh Khan here is a metaphor for saleable star.

Prelude To A Long Journey...

Hello Everyone,

This one is a humble offering to all the lovers and well wishers of Indian Cinema. I am trying to begin a blog to share with you all my experiences on this very illuminating & interesting journey, which I undertook along with my friend, Irfan Kamal, during the making of his debut feature, which we call THANKS MAA.

This is not a surrogate attempt to publicize and promote the film, neither its an attempt to sell you all any sort of personal propaganda. I understand things like such have been happening in these times of 'blogbusters'. The film has got an official website to take care of such things.

I am a writer and this is a first hand account of my exclusive experience of working on a special film project like Thanks Maa. I am calling it special coz its not too often when we as technicians working for Hindi Film industry gets the chance to work on projects which majorly stars real street kids of Mumbai, shot mostly on real locations of this fast paced city and dealing with a subject completely against the norms of popular cinema.

We faced problems which were unique and also had fun, oblivious to most film-makers of the tinsel town.

The principal shooting of the film is now complete... uffffff... what relief! And the post production, editing, background music etc has just started. So my involvement as a writer is now almost minimalized... Thus before the film get released and all the things associated with it turns as jaded as history, I thought to share things which still are so fresh in my memory and which I think are needed to be shared with you.

I'll take some time to put all these things on record and hope for your cooperation in helping me take it all out with as much honesty, sincerety and neutrality as possible.

I'll try not to disappoint you.

C u soon then.

Vishal