Basic Instinct

In times when filmmakers choose topics that the urban youth can relate to,you prefer to base your characters at the grassroot level. Why?
It is important to learn to connect with the youth. At the same time,you have to keep an ear to the ground; at least I have to. I am able to get the bird’s eye view of the world because of the position I enjoy in parliament. But it’s the ant’s eye view of the society that I need—the view from the bottom of the heap. This helps me stay connected to the real world and not simply at a superficial level though there is always media pressure to succumb.

The last few years have been hailed as a great period for indie cinema. However,you have been at it for more than three decades. What is your formula for success?
Then or now,the struggle remains the same. And without this struggle,a good film cannot be made because a filmmaker is perennially caught between the two extremes of business sense to recover investment and creative impulse. Neither can totally win.

Today’s filmmakers like Vishal Bharadwaj,Abhishek Chaubey and Anurag Kashyap are doing a phenomenal job. Indian cinema hasn’t had such a renaissance since the 1970s when we had filmmakers like Saeed Mirza,Ketan Mehta,Girish Karnad,Arun Khopkar and many more. In between,the industry took a beating because television became big. The film industry had to reinvent itself — it became top heavy with multi-starrers and formula films. Alternatively,the industry was being run by only one man—Amitabh Bachchan

Do you consciously stay away from stars while casting for your films?
You can afford big stars only if your film has a big budget. I cast Minissha Lamba because I needed a feisty girl with a sharp mind. Boman Irani,at the same time is versatile—he can do a straight-jacketed role,a comedy as well as play an arch villain. What worked most for Boman and Minnisha is that they share a great father-daughter bond and that is evident on screen.