‘Corporate’ was not for small towns: Madhur Bhandarkar

First of all Corporate according to my understanding was such a subject which had not been covered much by Bollywood. And the scale, which I planned for the subject, I guess nobody touched it to that extent ever before, which is why I was tempted to take it in a big way and precisely this is what I did.

But factually speaking, unlike you maintain, today there are scores of soap operas lined up on the television screens, which have the corporate world as their themes and thematically, are very much similar to your movie.

Yes, I agree but you see, the daily soap operas by the entertainment channels have the corporate theme as a sub-plot in their scripts. One the other hand I have tried to dwell on the minute details of the world of business, which was lying under wraps so far.

As you must be aware, your movie failed to evoke much interest in the smaller towns of the country and the hinterlands where the majority of the Indians live.

To put it frankly, from the very onset I did not conceptualize the movie to cater to the explicit tastes of the India dwelling in the smaller towns or villages. Let me tell you, I was very focused in my approach and was targeting only the metro dwellers. As you yourself would admit that the movie did quite well in the big cities.

One more thing I would like to share with you is that, this movie called Corporate was meant especially to cater to the multiplex goers and where it eventually did quite well. So my objective was achieved with movie being accepted quite well in the targeted circles.

Generally speaking, Madhur, what makes you select the topics for your projects, is it a random selection or is it something that requires enough of homework and brainstorming.

It is very instinctive, very natural. It is not something, which I try to get from some unknown world. It is just that I want to catch the real world on the reel world without many fabrications. This is exactly what drives me to my work, my projects, which eventually take the concrete form of Page 3, Corporate.

You see, I love to portray the world as such, as it exists, in its very natural colours, very natural ambience, and the original atmosphere with life size characters. I simply love to portray life the way it is and this is I feel the real drive that helps me move forward to accomplish my vision with my labour.

So, that means in a nutshell, the failure of Corporate, commercially, in the non-metro India comes as a disappointment to you.

Not exactly, as I have stated earlier I have been successful in reaching my target audience, which is a reason enough for me to be contented with my work. Had it not done well in the Metros, then certainly it would have been a sort of surprise. But fortunately that did not really happen.

Now, after Corporate, what does Madhur Bhandarkar has in store for his ardent and loyal audience.

Work is on full swing for my next project, Traffic Signal. It will be a classic example of situational comedy. In this movie also I have tried to portray some of evident but not much exposed characterstics of the real life of Mumbai.

As the name of the movie itself suggests, Traffic Signal presents the nitty-gritty of the ubiquitous point called traffic signal. Not only is the concept very raw by its nature, its treatment is also to a very large extent very real.

For example, the film will showcase characters as diverse as the eunuchs, beggars, drug peddlers, newspaper vendors, hawkers, etc. Not only that out of the several characters which have been incorporated in the movie, at least more than a dozen are a real life urchins and beggars. This has made the inherent humour at certain places very life like and thus distinct in its performance.

Last, but not the least, a query from your real life. Recently, after Mumbai blasts, you strongly advocated the role of Bollywood in coming to the aid of the common man in times of such crisis. What did you really mean?

Look at the amount of influence, people of entertainment world, especially Bollywood, wield on the general masses. Nobody today, can deny the iconic status which some of the movie stars and Bollywood personalities today enjoy among the masses. Now this influence can be constructively used to create awakening among the people against such threats, in future.