4 min readMumbaiMay 9, 2014 01:00 AM IST
Sai Kabir
Revolver Rani has done a decent business of around 10 crores in the first week. Did the collections meet your expectations?
The collections were overwhelming. Considering the film is a daring attempt, with no reference in Bollywood, and being an experimental movie, made in a modest budget of 8.5 crores, Revolver Rani has done very well. My producers and I were satisfied with the critical acclaim but when it did well at the box-office also, it was very encouraging. If a film does well on week days, like Revolver Rani is doing, it means that the audience has liked it.
Tigmanshu Dhulia (one of the producers) mentioned that at one point you all were actually thinking of turning Irrfan into a female and casting him as the protagonist as no actress would be ready to play the part of Alka Singh who is this psychotic, murderous, sexually ravenous dacoit – turned-politician. What has been the response to Kangana Ranaut’s portrayal of the part?
Yes it’s true at one point we did toy with the idea because the part of this ugly tyrannical politician was so unconventional. As for Kangana, the audience is loving her as Alka Singh and she is getting rave reviews as well. Everyone is impressed how convincingly she has portrayed this feudal Indian ‘man’ . Considering the film is not very pleasant and in fact quite disturbing, and her part is exactly the opposite of Queen in which she was very endearing, it is quite an achievement.
What do you keep in mind when you set a film in the heartland and highlight little known facts about these places. Like in Revolver Rani everyone, including young children brandishing guns was quite a revelation.
As a film-maker I never entertained the thought that the audience will not understand or is not familiar with something, because a film is also made to make you aware of what is happening in your country. I feel Revolver Rani is a well-crafted, responsible film. Its rash, violent backdrop is a culture which still exists and could be any place along the criminal belt in India, say along UP, Haryana or even the South. No point in making something that the people already know.
There’s a lot of deceit in the film. What did you want the audience to walk away with?
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I wanted the audience to get my point that the film is an authentic, bloody romcom about the modern Indian society where not too many good things are happening. It’s the comedy of our land. It’s a story about how no one is good, and how everyone, including the protagonist celebrates life in a gutter. And then there is a divine intervention in the form of Kangana’s pregnancy and she wants to come out of the gutter. That’s when the madness starts. As an idea the film is supposed to make people uneasy.
Was there any particular reason for Kangana’s obsession of Venice and Paris? And is there a sequel in the offing as the climax shows a badly injured, almost dead Kangana opening one eye.
The film is a journey from insanity to sanity, from a gutter to a dream land. And Venice is a city which means hope. In fact I am quite close to Alka Singh. I am from Gwalior and when I went to Paris some years back I became obsessed with the city and even wanted to settle there. I guess my own obsession is the reason I decided to use it in the film.
As for making a climax, the way the film ends is how I wanted to finish it – as it leaves you with a hope. But there was no thought of a sequel.
geety.sahgal@expressindia.com
Sai Kabir