R Balki on Shamitabh: It is an an ode to the Amitabh Bachchan baritone, the voice of India

“Mr Bachchan is full of such powerful traits. You can’t have an idea that doesn’t do justice to any of them. I invest a lot in just getting the story right, the fanboy sentiments can come back after that. Otherwise you end up hating yourself for destroying something for a man you really love,” he says. We are at the Khar Danda Road office of Balki’s Hope Productions, in Mumbai. His room is minimally decked up: there is a quirkily designed Nelson Mandela figurine, and apart from pictures from his own movies, are two giant posters of Scarface and American TV show Breaking Bad.

“Actually you can imagine Mr Bachchan playing an Indian version of Walter White,” he says, referring to the lead character of the TV show. Balki’s obsession with Amitabh Bachchan continues with his latest feature Shamitabh. Without divulging much about the plot, the filmmaker says that it is “an ode to the Bachchan baritone, the voice of India”. “I was enroute his birthday party and I had forgotten to carry a gift for him. Gauri (Shinde, filmmaker and his wife), who takes care of these things, was out. I don’t like giving flowers to people and I couldn’t have bought wine as he doesn’t drink. The only gift I could manage at that moment was an idea,” he says. In the film, Bachchan plays an alcoholic voice-over artiste who is employed by a mute aspiring actor (Dhanush). Together they form

“Shamitabh” and become successful till ego creates a rift between the two. Like his other films — and even his other production and Gauri Shinde’s directorial debut English Vinglish, Shamitabh revolves around a great one-line idea. It owes to his illustrious advertising background that has trained him to tell stories most economically.

“Making a feature film is an incredibly arduous task. The idea has to be exciting to sustain the interest of the entire cast and crew for the two years of it’s making,” he explains. Balki’s lead characters may all be written with Amitabh Bachchan in mind but spiritually his cinema owes more to Ilaiyaraaja’s music and PC Sreeram’s lens.

“I can only have thoughts, it can only get a voice on screen through the work of these two artistes,” he says, adding that sometimes, Ilaiyaraaja’s music even dictates the scene and not the other way round.”