Vishal Bhardwaj sacrificed Rs 30 lakh fees to make Maqbool, reveals he hasn’t earned ‘a single penny’ from the film to this day

“Ek din he (Bobby Bedi) said out of the blue, ‘We don’t have the budget to go to Bhopal, so you shoot in Film’s Division ki haveli’. Maine mana kar diya ki main shoot nahi karungi and he said that then ‘Main film nahi banaunga’ (I said that I won’t make the film, and then he said that he won’t produce it). And this is just 15 days before the thing. Maine raat ko 4-6 drink maare and phone off kar dia (I had 4-6 drinks that night and switched off my phone).”

Disheartened by the film falling apart, Vishal switched off his mobile phone for an entire weekend. On Monday, someone from Bobby Bedi’s team came knocking at his door. “Meri fees thi Rs 30 lakh. Music, direction, writing sab kuch laga ke. Unhone kaha ki Bhopal mein shoot karne mein 60 extra lagte hai to 30 lakh tu daal de, 30 lakh main daal dunga. Maine bola ki ye aap bata dete Friday ko (My fee was around Rs 30 lakh, including music, direction, writing. He said that to shoot in Bhopal, we need an extra Rs 60 lakh. He asked me to contribute my Rs 30 lakh salary, and he’d float the remaining money. I joked that he could’ve told me this on Friday itself).”

The filmmaker, who was also the co-producer of the film starring Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Pankaj Kapur, added, “I was not paid a single penny for that film. Till date I have not got a single penny even being a producer. But look at this, mujhe kitna mila hai Maqbool se, jo mujhe wo Rs 30 lakh mein kabhi nahi milta (What Maqbool did for me is worth more than the Rs 30 lakh). Bobby Bedi had a vision. It was rejected by everyone in the film industry.”

Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah in a still from Maqbool, shot in Abba ji’s haveli. (Photo: Express Archives)

The filmmaker was determined to honour his vision. So much so, when the crew failed to procure a carrom board of the right size, Vishal angrily gave them his own money to buy the correct prop. He recalled, “So, the carom board in that scene, the production gave a small carom board. When I asked them about it, they said ‘Itne ka hi budget hai (This is the best we could do with our budget). Rs 200 ka carrom board tha. Toh maine paise nikalke maare mooh pe ki tum mujhse paise le lo bada carrom board lekar aao. We waited for it, ki jab tak bada carrom board nahi aayega, we won’t shoot. To iss tarah ki bohot saari cheezein ki hai aur kuch cheezein hoti hai jinka aap retrospective mein credit le sakte hai (I took money out of my pocket and threw it at them, and asked them to get a bigger carrom board. We waited for the bigger carrom board to arrive; we refused to shoot until it did. These are the few things you can take credit for in retrospect).”

Maqbool was a cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and was also screened at Toronto International Film Festival. Vishal’s last film was the Netflix release Khufiya.