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Journalism of Courage
8220;IT8217;S okay that you watched Bend It Like Beckham on cable. Just post me the ticket money,8217;8217; he says wryly. Want some advice 8212; never tell a producer that you watched his film at home. It makes him sulk a bit.
Thankfully, Hollywood producer Deepak Nayar, in black trainers and mildly crushed pants regains his humour pretty quick. 8216;8216;Look how well Bend It8230; is doing. To think it took me two years to raise the money! No one touched the film until it was over and even then we got only UK government grants,8217;8217; he says.
For someone who stepped into the profession because he was admittedly 8216;8216;good at nothing else8217;8217; and moved quickly from doing Shakti Kapoor8217;s Vijaypath to handling almost all foreign productions set in India Ismail Merchant films, Far Pavilions, Kim etc, Nayar, today, is a highly successful US based producer alternating between studio films and independent ones. 8216;8216;For every independent film I make, I do two studio films. The latter is easier,8217;8217; he admits. He has just finished producing a big budget Hollywood film, City of Ghosts starring Matt Dillon and Gerard Depardieu. 8216;8216;It was awesome. We shot in Cambodia, the first time a film was made there after 25 years. Overnight we constructed roads and bridges and transformed the place,8217;8217; he says. And on the independent films he has worked with masters like David Lynch, Wim Wenders and Francis Ford Coppola. 8216;8216;I was Lynch8217;s driver for two years before he took me on as assistant director on Twin Peaks,8217;8217; he chuckles.
And now he is trawling Mumbai in search of new scripts and filmmakers 8216;that match his sensibility8217;. 8216;8216;Santosh Sivan and Ashutosh Gowariker are the people I want to work with. Apart from them, I am still looking. Kaizad Gustad is bright but his Boom is not my type. Parallel filmmakers like Saeed Mirza, Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani are too established in their ways of filmmaking for me to work with them. They belong to another generation,8217;8217; he says, doing a quick professional recce.
Of course, Nayar is not directly involved in sourcing the films, new filmmakers and scripts are first screened by Gopalan and Mathai. And he firmly believes that the director should be given the creative upper-hand. 8216;8216;I am only there when the casting and the editing of the film takes place but never interfere when the director is shooting,8217;8217; he says.
It is not the Bollywood8217;s underworld connections that bothers Nayar 8216;8216;I have nothing to do with them8217;8217; as much as the lack of discipline in the industry. 8216;8216;We finish a film in 28 to 33 days in the West. I saw to it that it happened with Bhopal Express though, I found technical crew that could shoot back to back. And, in fact, Ashutosh picked up the same crew for Lagaan,8217;8217; he points out.
With his Kintop Productions tying up another production house Idreams, Nayar is concentrating on making films for the young. 8216;8216;Yes, we will start with the NRI base but hope to educate filmmakers here to make more mainstream films,8217;8217; he says with a flourish.
