Senna and Sensibility

“I was a directionless and rebellious teenager growing up in Hampshire,England,and Senna embodied everything that I was facing,” says Pandey,44,a surgeon by training who was born in Shimla and spent five years in Agra before moving to Hampshire. “I grew up in England,while my dad was in the US. Even Senna was an outsider when he arrived in Britain in 1981 as his parents were in Brazil. I was living with my mother and sister,but Senna symbolised what I felt,” says Pandey,over phone from London.

Senna,Pandey’s debut film,was released over a month ago in the UK,and collected £ 3 million (approx Rs 21 crore) in its opening weekend,making it the most successful documentary in Britain. Besides its theatrical laurels at Spain,Italy,Germany,Moscow and Adelaide,the 104-minute film won the Audience Award at the Sundance festival,Los Angeles,this year.

The film documents Senna’s journey from a 20-year old newcomer to the final race. There is rare video footage of Senna’s races and interviews from the archives of F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. In the film,we see the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix,where Senna tries to overtake Prost on his chicane. But the cars collide and both crash out of the race. The film,says Pandey,is about “a pure man in a very impure world and his journey home to God. When I watch the film,my hero comes alive.” He adds that the film is a culmination of six-and-a-half years of seeking permissions.

Pandey first flirted with the idea of the film in 2004,when he met another Senna fanatic,James Gay-Rees,who would later become his co-producer. “We wanted to make a feature documentary,so it would be like watching a film,but with Senna himself,” explains Pandey,who met Senna’s family and sister Viviane in March 2006,for permission for the documentary. “They had earlier refused permission to Antonio Banderas to make a similar feature; they doubted if the Hollywood actor could do justice to the part. Luckily they liked our presentation,” adds Pandey. He signed up two-time BAFTA Award-winning director Asif Kapadia for the film.

An alumnus of Cambridge Medical School,Pandey always “had a gut feeling” that he would make films some day. Director Shekhar Kapur introduced him to major UK production houses,and Pandey even bagged a Working Title Films project for an adaptation of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice . But Gurinder Chadha trumped him to the spot.

Pandey is in talks with Tag Heuer and Vicky Chandhok,Indian race driver Karun Chandhok’s father,to screen Senna at the debut season of the Indian Grand Prix in Greater Noida on October 30.