Having written the celebrated Gangs of Wasseypur films (and also acted as the deadly Definite in part 2) Zeishan Quadri looks set to direct the third part now. You can sense the liveliness and excitement in his voice as he tells you on phone that he has finished writing it and is waiting for Anurag (Kashyap) sir — who is busy giving final touches to his own new film Raman Raghav 2.0 — to sit with him, go through the final script and give him a decisive go ahead.
Zeishan is no less busy himself than his filmi guru. “I can’t sit still for even five minutes,” he tells you. The live wire that he is, the entire interview gets done in ten minutes flat with Zeishan giving out all the information and facts at breakneck speed, our questions acting as small speed-breakers on the rapid ride. He is one of the producers of Omung Kumar’s Aishwarya Rai-Randeep Hooda starrer Sarbjit which is ready for release on May 20. He is also set to announce a big production soon. Having produced and directed a small film like Meeruthiya Gangsters that suffered at the box office owing to poor promotion, he is intent on producing only biggies now. “They help you gain a hold in the business and in the industry,” he says.
But writing is what makes his world go round. “I can’t ever stop writing,” he says. He is doing a slice of life film for Luv Ranjan ( Pyaar Ka Punchnama 1 and 2) on sports in a small town UP school and a crime thriller for Abhishek Pathak.
It was Kashyap who suggested that Zeishan, a Wasseypur boy himself, should direct the third in the Wasseypur series. This was last year in September. “He feels that I understand the dark humour and have a way with creating quirky characters,” says Zeishan. The first film covered a huge span of time — from the 1940s to 1990s — and second ended in 2009, says Quadri. He has written two versions of the new film and hopes to set it between 1985 and 2000. “It will actually be Gangs of Wasseypur 1.5 ,” he says. There will be no geographical changes. “The same homes, families, shot-taking, language and body lingo will be there,” he says, “The world will be the same, the story will be different and there will be new characters introduced.”
Rebel with a cause
But isn’t it a challenge to take on a film franchisee that is so strongly associated with Kashyap? Isn’t he scared of what Kashyap fans will say? According to him you can’t satisfy everyone. There were people who disliked the GOWs too. More than scared he is happy about embarking on the project. “I like to hold on to positive feelings,” he says. Also, the call came from Kashyap himself, someone he couldn’t have contested. “ Ab agar guru ne kaha hai to naa to nahin kah sakta (If my guru has said so I can’t turn it down),” he says. Isn’t he scared of the expectations knowing the cult success of the film? “I am not trying to copy the two films; there is no competition with them so there is no sense of fear either. I will just go ahead and make it. Rest is the fate of the film itself,” he says. And what about the inevitable comparisons? “I have grown up in Wasseypur where comparisons are an intrinsic part of life — he got Rs 90 lakh in dowry and you only got Rs 85?” he guffaws. While his friends excelled in studies he remained a “second division pass.” “I had to be accepted as a rebel eventually,” he says. And he wants to be a rebel with a cause in Bollywood too.
