Road Trip

New York-based filmmaker,adding the film is inspired from his own travels as a young filmmaker in India.

“Special Economic Zones are flattening,the landscape. I had to make it before the Indian landscape disappears,” he says,as he takes a stroll on his terrace. Benegal’s latest film tells the story of a young Vishnu who escapes his family’s hair oil business and travels across the country in a truck with a striking gypsy woman and two old film projectors. Benegal is also full praise for Abhay Deol who plays the lead in the movie. So what is it that made him replace his old favourite Rahul Bose with Deol? “It’s nothing like that,” he laughs. “I met Abhay in New York and he really struck me. The minute I spoke to him he fit perfectly into the character,” says Benegal,who has also roped him in for his next project which is a story based in Mumbai. Benegal shot to fame with his debut movie English,August in 1994,which won him a National Award. In 1999 he came out with his next Split Wide Open. In a career spanning more than two decades,Benegal has just three movies to his credit. Doesn’t the slow pace worry him? “I write my own scripts and I do my own research. Filmmaking is a passion for me not a job. But I will make sure the next two will release in May 2011 and May 2012. The screenplays are ready. The casting is going on at the moment,” he points to his work station.