Counting Stars

Hansal Mehta on Ranaut: The past couple of years have seen female actors deliver remarkable performances as central characters. Hansal Mehta says 2015 will see the reign of women in Bollywood continue, be it Kalki Koechlin in Margarita, With a Straw or Deepika Padukone in Piku and Bajirao Mastani. “But of all the leading ladies, 2015 in my opinion, will belong to Kangna Ranaut. She will be seen in four films — in a double role in Tanu Weds Manu’s sequel, Nikhil Advani’s romantic comedy Katti Batti, Sai Kabir’s Divine Lovers, opposite Irrfan, and Sujoy Ghosh’s Durga Rani Singh. Reema Kagti’s next also has her in the lead. The range of directors keen to work with her is quite impressive. Queen, clearly, was just the beginning,” says Mehta.

Varun Dhawan

Anurag Basu on Dhawan: Varun Dhawan made his screen debut in 2012 but according to Anurag Basu, 2015 is when the actor will make a mark in the film industry. Dhawan’s on-screen presence and spunk have been visible in Student of the Year or Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya. But his versatility will be on display in Sriram Raghavan’s Badlapur, says Basu. “He has been looking promising in the promos, with a dark, gritty feel to his character. He is expected to age from 20 to 40 for his role. If he pulls that off well — and it seems he will — it will show his understanding of a character’s graph, something that’s remained unexplored in the roles he has portrayed so far.” Later this year, Dhawan will be back with the sequel to Any Body Can Dance.

Chaitanya Tamhane

Anurag Kashyap on Tamhane: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap read the script of Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court long ago. A subversive courtroom drama, Court delves into the judiciary, bureaucracy and underground cultural movements such as Kabir Kala Manch. Kashyap believes Mumbai-based Tamhane —  a self-taught filmmaker who has directed the short film Six Strands; a documentary on plagiarised work in India’s film and music scene; and a play called Grey Elephants in Denmark — will emerge as a talent to reckon with in 2015. “I am curious to see how people in the country respond to the film. Those who have seen it are saying it’s one of the best films ever made in India. The multi-lingual film won top honours at the Venice Film Festival and the Mumbai Film Festival.”

Abhay Kumar

Anand Gandhi on Kumar: He hasn’t seen Abhay Kumar’s Placebo yet. “But, I am familiar with the way Placebo is made. The film is an exploration of the violent side of India’s brightest minds. Abhay filmed four students in one of the country’s most reputed medical schools to pull off this social experiment. It’s a personal essay, a hybrid project that traverses documentary and fiction, and performance art. It sounds very exciting as an experiment,” says Gandhi. This documentary had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November, 2014. Kumar had earlier made a short film in 2011 called Just That Sort of a Day, which won the best short film award at the Busan International Short Film Festival in 2011 and a National Award in 2012.

Navdeep Singh

Vikas Bahl on Singh: AS the head of UTV Spotboy, Vikas Bahl closely watched Navdeep Singh’s career. He believes it is unfortunate that the young director’s second release will come eight years after his directorial debut, Manorama Six Feet Under. “His first film gave a peek into Navdeep’s talent behind the camera. A small film with a then-relatively-new actor (Abhay Deol), it was an unconventional thriller,” says Bahl. The second film that Singh was directing, a zombie comedy that would have been India’s first in the genre, sadly couldn’t be completed. “Now he is directing a film of a genre that he made his mark with. A thriller that unfolds during a road trip,” says Bahl.