Mixing It Up

Bajatey Raho director Shashant A Shah on working with an Ensemble cast in his films

Being born in a joint family with different cultures and traditions Gujarati,Bengali and Christian makes me appreciate working with an ensemble cast. Its like parenting different kids and being fair to each one,to love them equally and bring out the best in them.

My first experience with an ensemble cast as a director,was with The Great Indian Comedy Show on Star ONE. It was a mad show with a madder bunch of actors such as Vinay Pathak,Suresh Menon,Ranvir Shorey,Gaurav Gera,Purbi Joshi,Kiku Sharda,Howard,Ashwin Mushran and Raju Shrivastav,among others. I directed the show for three years after which I went on to make my first feature Dasvidaniya where once again I had an ensemble line up of Pathak,Shorey,Rajat Kapoor,Saurabh Shukhla and Neha Dhupia. Making my first film was daunting since I had no film experience,hadnt assisted any director nor did I attend film school. Despite not having any filmy connections,my film was appreciated and I got congratulatory calls from Rajkumar Hirani,David Dhawan and Jaideep Sahini. Then came Chalo Dilli co-starring Vinay and Lara Dutta with its Kaunsi badi baat ho gayi line which became an instant hit with the masses. I try to give all my characters a personal belief and philosophy and thats what makes the audience connect with them. Ensembles work only if people can relate to them.

My latest film,Bajatey Raho,which is a story of the masses and deals with issues of corruption in daily life,touches and affects all of us. It is a story that someone in your family would have either experienced or heard about. The moment I started writing Bajatey Raho with Zafar Khan,I knew that it would have many characters. I knew it was going to be a big task to get all the actors under one roof,but I was confident about the script. Putting up a great ensemble cast together is not easy. There are many twists and turns,but thats the fun and excitement of making a movie. For Bajatey Raho,I conducted a series of workshops with my actors at a very informal. It was done with the intention to break the ice between relative strangers who needed to look at ease with each other. I made Tusshar Kapoor and Shorey bond with each other since they play chaddi buddies in the film. My dialogue writer Akshay Verma,from Delhi,helped Tusshar and Ravi Kishan to develop a native accent. We signed up Jaidev Kumar,a big music director from Punjab to compose three tracks Naagin dance nachna,Tu meri mata and Khurafati akhiyan for an authentic Punjabi feel.

All my actors in Bajatey Raho belong to different genres of acting but the ease with which they connected on the sets belies that. I think the idea of all of us having lunch together on the first day of shoot really worked. Ultimately,the success of an ensemble is all about bringing enthusiastic people together,who believe in the story.

Id like to sum up about the film saying,there is always a wrong way to do the right thing and would like to mention a line beautifully written by Kumar for the title song Kya hoga baith kar tit for tat kar. Rule bana le apna.Bajatey Raho.

Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.