Life is the greatest gift that God has given us. Death is only a bridge towards eternal life with God. Certainly, heaven is rejoicing for another soul has finally reached his true home. Our deepest condolences to late Shri Kundan Shah
from CINEBUSTER STAFF
In what way is your film P Se P.M Tak different from your earlier films?
It is different in the sense that it is for the first time that I have directed a film which I have not written per se. I decided to make the film because it is a very hard hitting satire about how a hard core prostitute becomes the Prime Minister of the country in a span of just four days when she is caught in the vortex of by elections
You have never made a film with a star though you had given a break to stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta etc. Do you have any aversion to making a film with a star?
If there is no star in your film, there is a tremendous amount of pressure from the market. It is not that I have any aversion to making a film with a star. Who doesn’t? It is just that the stars do not want to do a film with you. Ten years ago, I had gone to Shah Rukh Khan as well as Aamir Khan to narrate the subject of a small comedy film. They liked the subject but did not want to do the film because they did not want to be part of a small budget film as they were working in big budget films. I do not deny that they do have a point when they refuse to do my film. I am of the opinion that the lesser the budget of your film, the more adventurous your film can be.
What was the budget of the iconic classic film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro that you had made?
Believe it or not, the film cost me just Rs 7 lakhs at that time. It was made in a span of 45 days. Today it will cost you more than even what you have spent in the making of your film to market your film though you can complete your film on a decent budget. Today film making has become a big gamble because the stakes are very high
You have not made a film with Preity Zinta after Kya Kehna which was her debut film. Why?
In my career span of 45 years, I have wasted as many as 44 years and made only seven or eight films. If I have to make a film, I must get a chance. I do not get many opportunities to make a film because I do not agree that cinema has got to be viable. As a filmmaker, I do not think I can take the weight of a big budget when I set out to make a film because I need the freedom to fail
Was Preity Zinta your original choice or that of Ramesh Taurani?
Ramesh Taurani wanted to make Kya Kehna with Honey Irani as the director and not me. Rameshji was very impressed with Honey because she was supposed to make Kya Kehna with Yashji but the deal fell through. I was in touch with Honey and she recommended to Ramesh that he should ask me to direct then film because for some reasons she did not want to direct the film for Rameshji. I was sitting at home without work and decided to direct the film I immediately said yes first to Rameshji and set out to think only afterwards. There was many a slip between the cup and the lip and in the intervening period Preity had acted in Soldier as well as Dil Se though Kya Kehna was her first film.
Can you elucidate?
I told Honey that I did not want to be conditioned to her vision and she asked me to treat the film the way I deemed it fit. I slightly altered the script and based it on an Italian journalist who was ostracized though she was living amidst liberated people because she had had a miscarriage, that too out of wedlock. She had written a book called Letters from a Child never Born when my writer Ranjeet Kapoor asked me to read it
Is it true that Madhuri Dixit kept you waiting for her dates for the last 25 years for P Se P.M Tak?
It is far from the truth though a leading Mumbai daily had carried the news that Madhuri had made me wait for twenty five years. Why should they set out to sell a has- been director to sell their copies? 20 years ago, I approached Madhuri to narrate to her the subject of P Se P.M Tak. Things did not work out then. A few years ago I was called to her house when she had become the mother of two children. Again I narrated the subject and she liked it very much but to be fair to her, she didn’t keep me in hanging because she didn’t at all commit herself.
In what way is P Se P.M Tak similar to K.C. Bokadia’s Dirty Politics?
The only similarity in both the films is that Dirty Politics had Mallika Sherawat who was supposed to be a part of P Se P.M Tak and both the protagonists happen to be the Prime Minister
Do you think a director should not compromise if he has to make a good film?
Though ideally speaking, a director should not compromise at all, if you have to be practical, you have no other alternative but to compromise. You cannot put your foot down and insist on your way when you make a film because ultimately a director is like a cockroach and has no other alternative but to listen to everyone. Jitne formula ko follow karte ho, director ka wajan utna hi bad jaatha hai. If today Rohit Shetty doesn’t deliver, he’d get sidelined though all said and down it is not easy today to be a Rohit Shetty, because he is constantly burdened by the fact that he has to deliver a package and see to it that his film does not stop entertaining people. It isn’t every body’s cup of tea to be a Rohit Shetty.
You have made just seven or eight films in a span of over 45 years. Why?
To tell you the truth, I have not got the opportunities. Filmmakers like Govind Nihalani and I are forced to retire, because we just cannot make vigilante films. Govind says that there is water everywhere today but we do not have even a drop of water to drink. I couldn’t create the opportunities either though I am gifted in script writing and have a flair for humor, romance. Everybody cannot be lucky like say Anurag Kashyap or Rajkumar Hirani. I do not mean to say that they have survived only because of luck. It is important to make good films or else the new generation will be fed on only junk fast food. My biggest weapon is different kind of humor of the underdog. Today even the minus points of my film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro have become its plus points and now there are plans to make a sequel to Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, with Naseeruddin Shah, playing a key role in it.
