Under Spielberg’s Spell

On a four-day trip to India,the producer-director is a guest of Tina and Anil Ambani — owners of Reliance DreamWorks that co-produced Spielberg’s latest Academy Award-winning film Lincoln.

At a masterclass organised by his hosts,Spielberg,in conversation with Amitabh Bachchan,spoke about the art and business of filmmaking and his personal experiences with it. Among those who attended the session were Rajkumar Hirani,R Balki and wife Gauri Shinde,Reema Kagti,Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra,Prabhudheva,Kiran Rao,Vikramaditya Motwane,Vikas Bahl,Abbas-Mustan,Zoya Akhtar and Madhur Bhandarkar. “He is one of the few filmmakers who has made so many landmark movies. Yet he was so humble,” said Mehra.

During the session,the 66-year-old spoke about his films,talking in detail about the challenges he faced during the making of Jaws and how making E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial remains a gratifying experience since it has a huge following among children and is remembered by people even 30 years after its release.

The section of the audience that comprised filmmakers who started out with indie or offbeat movies,such as Anurag Kashyap,Tigmanshu Dhulia and Onir,found validation of their efforts in Spielberg’s words. “Some of his works have been huge box-office successes. Yet he spoke about the importance of the story over box-office performance. Even when he is producing a film that someone else is directing,he said he steps in only towards the end as a sounding board and allows them to take creative decisions,” said Shinde.

Several attendees were also pleased that an event of such scale focussed only on filmmakers,without the presence of stars. “I haven’t attended any event with a foreign dignitary of such stature before where the focus is on filmmaking. Mostly,filmstars always steal the show,” said Onir. The event concluded with brief personal interactions over cocktails with Spielberg,who left soon after while the Indian filmmakers stayed behind to mingle.

However,stars too,interacted with Spielberg on Tuesday night at Sea Wind,the Ambani residence in Colaba. At a party organised by the Ambanis,the film fraternity arrived in large numbers to meet the filmmaker.