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| Edited By: Yogesh Pawar |Source: DNA |Updated: Dec 05, 2017, 02:00 PM IST
You know acting was my first love till I discovered direction and stuck with that. It's been 18 years since I acted. The only reason I did Ventilator was Rajesh's (Rajesh Mapuskar of Ferrari Ki Sawari fame) persistence and conviction. In the thick of the Mohenjo Daro shoot in Bhuj, he called asking me to do this film. I thought he wanted me to produce, but I was in no frame of mind. When he said acting, I was taken aback and immediately suggested he ask others. He persisted saying I must look at the script, I said it'll take me four-five months to come back to Mumbai and hoped he'd get tired. But he waited and connected again. I read the script and liked it a lot but kept hedging. To top it all, he got his producer to call me…
Ventilator is being produced by Priyanka Chopra who I directed in What's Your Raashee? seven years ago. When she called and said how great it'll be to work together again with her producing a film in which I'm acting, it made me take the final plunge. You know Priyanka is in a space today where if she wants, she can make a big budget Bollywood blockbuster easily. Yet she's chosen to make regional films. In Marathi, Punjabi and Bhojpuri. I think that's remarkable.
I'd conveyed this to Rajesh even when I came aboard. I told him how Mohenjo Daro was important for me and the post-production was quite critical. I think he understood. For all the 34 days I shot, I was actually making them work their schedules around mine. I'm so happy they did and let me be part of this lovely movie.
Hardly ever. That's not my approach. I trust the director and execute what is expected of me. So much so that unlike most actors these days, I don't rush to the monitor to look at the shot. I look up at the director and the look in his eyes suggests whether I've been able to pull it off or not. So when I saw the final finished product, I felt even more glad that I decided to be part of this film. This is an unusual film, which keeps you entertained throughout with it's really special moments. It will stand out and have it's own shine since it's so different, even by the standards of Marathi cinema, which is doing so many exciting things.
(Smiles) It was fabulous reconnecting and it gave me a comfort zone since I was coming back to acting after a break. Sukanya Kulkarni has played my wife in the past in a TV show and we've also done a film, Sarkarnama. So it was great being on screen together again. I really loved interacting with Sulabha Arya, Usha Nadkarni, Achyut Podar… These are some of the biggest theatre personalities who also do movies. It was fabulous.
(Laughs) Well, that sounds dramatic. But like I said, I love directing and I have already begun working on my next script. This came my way and as fate had it, I did it. Right now, I can't say if I'll act again or not. I'm not closing myself to acting, but I need something with volume, with enough for me to do. It needs to invoke in me a sense of importance, a feeling that says 'Oh my god! I have to do this!'
I think the trajectories have helped. There was a time when there was nothing but comedy films in Marathi. Because of that overkill, today's Marathi filmmakers, who were growing up, were so put off with what that genre was reduced to… they are making such different movies. They all feel strongly about their roots in Satara, Junnar, Beed, and want to tell stories in their own style about caste, power, gender or coming of age. Almost all of these directors are writing their own stories. The subjects are so powerful that producers are willing to back them. They don't even need to knock door-to-door on stars' doors. And the beauty is that the audience is lapping it up.
The problem is Hindi cinema wants to work pan-India. So concoctions have to be created to appeal to all the regions and people. Economics and template get dictated by that. Regional cinema has to cater to one language, culture, sensibility and often even aesthetic. This allows the filmmaker to focus on telling the story well.
I feel the circumstances under which Mohenjo Daro released did not work well with the film's marketing. Those who went and watched the film have all raved about it. But I know a lot of people also made up their minds about not watching it based on the film's trailer because it did not work for them. Strangely, many of these very people got back to me saying they had liked the film when they caught it after its satellite release.
I don't think so. I can vouch for the film being historically and archaeologically accurate. Everything, from the costumes to the headgear, created with great emphasis on authenticity and detail. The story was, of course, fiction woven with the historical. I feel there may have been some audiences who didn't find that in keeping with how they imagine this period might have been.
No. Of the three ideas I'm working on, one is a historical and the other two are contemporary subjects. One film not working does not shut down a genre. Having said that, historicals are the hardest to make. It's a boutique genre. There are fewer people making such cinema.
I think so much has been said about this issue that its led to far too much polarisation and shrillness to the surround sound. All I can say is that though art surely traverses boundaries, the country should come above everything else. Patriotism and solidarity need to come first. At the same time, I feel that films made before the Uri attack should be allowed to release. New ones should adhere to a commonly arrived at understanding of putting the nation first!
