ACTION JACKSON

These words uttered by Amitabh Bachchan in the film,according to director Puri Jagannadh,sum up the spirit of Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap. An AB Corp production in association with Viacom 18,the film,which has Big B play a gangster who returns to Mumbai to complete some unfinished business,has generated a lot of curiosity with its promos and posters. Its pressing the rewind button to the angry-young-man classics that made Bachchan the superstar of all times.

When quizzed on whether a film with the angry young man attitude at its core,albeit in a lighter vein,would find resonance with the wannabe-cool cinegoers,Javed Akhtar,the co-creator of this towering colossus of a character says,The fact is that society is angry even today,though the anger might be different from what the nation felt during the 70s. The society patronising cinema has a certain level of anger which is depicted in different ways. Anger,as with any emotion,is always relevant and Amitabh Bachchan is an extremely competent artiste who is convincing,no matter what the scene or dialogue.

It is interesting the way the film is being pitched,for more than one reason Bachchan after his iconic angry-young-man phase made the transition to the grand patriarch after the runaway success of his television show with Kaun Banega Crorepati. The transition phase between the two was marked by good,average and forgettable projects but Bachchan,besides Dilip Kumar,is among the few who strode magnificently into their advancing years,turned them into an advantage and carved places for themselves high above the reach of younger competitors. Bachchan,in fact,with his recent ventures has taken the age conundrum a step further. Not too long ago,he turned back the clock by playing an 12-year-old child afflicted by Progeria in Paa. Among other age-busting myths,he has been the master of cyberspace with his blogs and tweets,keeping ahead of his younger contemporaries in consistency. On television,he has proved his supremacy with a Season 5 of KBC as also its editions in different languages. And despite the youth mania,Bachchan remains a constant favourite with filmmakers and ad-filmmakers,always a contender for top position.

Interestingly,the film clashes with Delhi Belly,an irreverent,slick youth flick. That it releases with another film would,usually,not be pertinent except that Bbuddah… is going to face competition from an Aamir Khan production that has been packaged and pitched for the youth which according to trade analyst Komal Nahta contributes 50-55 per cent of the audience on the opening day. As per the assessment of both Nahta and trade analyst Amod Mehra,it will be the 35-plus demographic that has grown up watching Bachchan blockbusters that will throng at theatres to watch Bbuddah… .

However,none of this analysis is fazing the spirits of the players in question. Puri,tongue-in-cheek,says,Amitabh Bachchan is younger than Imran Khan.

How did Bbuddah… come about?

Puri Jagganadh is a very prominent director in Andhra Pradesh and Ram Gopal Varma actually brought him and said that I must hear his script. We heard it,and liked the idea. Its basically a very simple story about a 70-year-old guy (or my age) who is an ex-gangster and is coming to town.

Going by that,would it be safe to call it an action film?

It has a bit of action,it has drama and music… a bit of everything.

You have also made a significant musical contribution by way of singing the songs yourself…

The music directors would just put me into the room and give me a microphone and ask me to sing and I would say,Gosh,I cant do this. But yes,I have actually sung three songs. One song is such that there is singing,plus the musical sounds of instruments are also made by the singer. Its called Acapella. That was something novel. The promo has been cut on it. Then I sung two songs,one of which is a medley of some of my old hits.

These days,there are many technical instruments that make you sound good and the experience was very exciting.

Considering this is a home production,you must be very involved with itthere were reports of a reshoot of a song with Sonu Sood.

There was no re-shoot. We are part producersholding hands with Viacom 18. Creatively,we have joint discussions on the story,dialogues,where we are shooting,how we are shooting,of this and that and then we come to a consensus.

Have you moved away from Reliance Big Entertainment,your earlier partners?

There was no definite status that they were to be the only people with whom we will work. We were comfortable with Viacom 18,so we went ahead.

And Hemaji plays the romantic lead opposite you?

Yes,she is opposite me is all I can say at the moment. If I start explaining,I will have to give away the story.

What kind of reaction has the promo received?

Obviously,there are very good expectations as always. We hope that this film will do very well. Some of the initial reports and reactions that we have from the trailer has been encouraging. With Abhishek heading the production side,its been wonderful and you get a lot of music. In fact,he has sung along with me in one of the songs. One conscious decision was that we would keep the costs very low. With Paa we were certain that we cant go beyond Rs 15 crore and we stuck to that. We have done this in Rs 10.5 crore and the satellite has already been sold for Rs 13.5,so the cost is already covered and the rest of it is profits.

Would you say that the industry has finally figured out a way to second-guess the audience?

I sit now on these production,marketing and promotion meetings and its a huge revelation. Of course,I have great admiration for these youngsters who come armed with researched figures and other minute details that makes the process much easier. They are very particular about certain aspects we never thought of,such as the way we should cut a promo or the kind of music to be put in for a certain audience. I am most excited and Im learning.

Do these new considerations make the process different from earlier days?

Oh yes,we never even knew that such factors existed. The producers put up a few banners and Screen was a huge platform for promotionan ad in Screen was the ultimate promotional exercise to make an impact. Now its a different ballgame. A well-thought strategy,sales management and technology to support it are essential. Ticket-prices are very high,making it an expensive proposition for the common man. Besides,so much is happening on television,giving the viewer a lot of choice. In that respect I would imagine that the marketing and promotions people have a certain strategy. But its very interestingthe methodology of ensuring that a certain number of people will come to watch the film. I go along with it because I find that their assessment actually works.

So a hit (film) can actually be constructed based on data from research?

Eventually it is good cinema or appreciable cinema that is being patronised by the audience. In that respect,I would say there has been great maturity displayed by the audience in their ability to discern what they want to see and eliminate what they dont. That bodes well. But with each generation there will be a difference in how they want to make their cinema.

Delhi Belly,a quintessential youth flick and Bbuddah… release on the same day,so going by market assessment,which would you say has a better chance at impressing the box office?

There is space for everybody,I think. There have been many occasions when film releases have coincided but if the film is good,it will be appreciated.

Which is a more accurate assessment of a filmreviews or the box-office report?

A review is the opinion of one person read by a certain section of the people and it is their prerogative then to believe the review or not. But eventually the collections matter because the box-office collections reflect the pulse of the audience.

What do you have to say about the present trend of churning out South remakes?

Thats not new. Its an old trend that has worked very successfully. Ever since I came in and even before that there were several subjects from the South that the Mumbai film industry picked up. There were prominent producers there who made remakes of their own films in Hindi. I have been a part of several remakes of Shivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan films. Vice-versa,Rajinikanth have done so many remakes of my films. I see a lot of that happening again. Technically,I find them superior and their businesses are also fairly large. In fact,the largest number of films produced are in Telugu and not Hindi. And their returns,ratio-wise,are massive. And now you have,say,an established director like Puri Jagganadh from Telugu cinema making a film in Hindi that is yet another welcome trend.

Has the arrival of Hollywood studios brought about greater discipline and clarity on creative ownership?

I will sort of blow my own trumpet a little bit here. In 1995,when I started ABCL,the idea was to formalise or corporatise this very potent entertainment industry. It came about from discussions with people in the West who saw India as a new frontier. My lawyers would say,You should get your house in order because the Americans are coming. In my initial talks with executives,I had said that within five years,all big corporations are going to land here and buy us out. Hollywood has set in motion a trend worldwide,of which one needs to be wary. Welcome,as well as wary. They moved into United Kingdom and eventually destroyed the industry. Then they moved into Europe and its cinema vanishedGerman and French cinema was wiped out because they overpowered that cinema with their own products. And they are moving absolutely in the same direction in India as well. They have,with their management and marketing expertise,very smartly,moved into exhibition and distribution. And now,several times,their films are doing better than ours so we need to be cautious of the fact that they have the capacity to destroy us. In order to ward off the danger,we need to challenge ourselves. All their films that have done well here,fortunately,are the ones like Avatar,Titanic,Kung-Fu Pandafilms wherein technology or animation is involved. I dont think that culturally stories,which revolve around their moral standards,can connect. I think we can share each others expertise and build our own systems and standards. The protection of right is being documented. Technologies of marketing and distribution are now being put in place. What has been collected on a film actually gets back to you and the discrepancies are now being monitored. Such systems are helpful and we must imbibe them. We must check piracy and strengthen our laws. Earlier,it was an individual pursuit but I am happy that something I started in 1995 is being followed. Now there are listed corporate companies. The entertainment industry in the next 10-15 years will become massive because the very factor that used to be criticisedour populationin a sense,has become our USP. It means more numbers 250-300 million television viewers,which is close to the entire population of USA! Oprahs show,which is number one,has 12 to 15 million people watching it in US. When an audience of 400-500 million people gets converted commercially,its going to be huge.

Most industry-watchers feel that despite being flush with funds,Bollywood invests very little in writing. Comment.

I would agree. Our written word has still not progressed much since the 60s or 70s when I was there. I would say that it has a lot to do with the youths lack of interest in reading good stuff. Today if they want an answer they would rather google it than research a book. I dont know if many of them read newspapers anymore. They are more restless and they want quick opinions and results. Its like going to McDonalds and getting food on the go. So unfortunately,filmmaking,art,culture and literature are not very visible as they were earlier,which is sad. We have a vast cultural heritage to draw from in both theatre and literature of all states in India so I hope an effort in that direction will improve matters.

Would you say that the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Festival,just one more in the long list of honours heaped on you by different nations,is an indicator of the growing awareness of Bollywood?

There is a huge amount of recognition now. I was in Krakow recently as their guest and there was incredible amount of respect with which they received me and showed my films at the festivals there. I was in Oxford University for a lecture,which is very prestigious,and people spoke about Indian cinema. In fact,there was an entire section devoted to India,Indian culture,our traditions and so on. Westerners are learning to speak Hindi and even Sanskrit. In France,I was invited to the Theatre des Champs Elysee,one of the most prominent ballet theaters,to recite my fathers poems. The worlds best ballets are performed there,Philharmonics play there and they invited me to recite my fathers poems in Hindi! I was amazed that there was a 75 per cent French audience. I notice that even in American serials these days there are Indians as characters. Everywhere you go today there is talk about Indian culture and a large part of this is because ever since the economy has opened up theres a huge amount of interest in us. Its fantastic to see Mr Barack Obama,the most powerful man in the world,talk about India in almost every speech.

What would you say about your films being remade Don,Satte Pe Satta and Agneepath to name a few?

This is an individual producers choice. Agneepath belonged to Dharma Productions. So long as the film does well at the box-office,it is alright,but the original is the original. I feel a sense of great pride that they are considered valuable enough to be remade.

And what about our current fascination with sequels?

The trend of sequels is catching up and I see a number of them doing well. Anyway there are only seven or eight stories in the world. We have been drawing inspiration from our two epics Ramayan and Mahabharatthere is a Ram,a Sita,a Bhishma,a Draupadi and a Krishna in all our films. The rest is creativity.

As a genre,do you think family dramas will continue to be staple fare in films?

Their appeal has got a lot to do with our social structure. We have a family living under one roof unlike in the West where once you are 18,you are on your own. Our family values are much stronger. We live under one roof,eat and pray together and go out to work together so we make films that people can watch together.

Is that why films such as Baghban will always find an audience?

I am glad you mention it,because when Baghban released,Cookie (BR Chopra) told me that he got a call at 3 a.m in the morning from a man who had just walked out of a theatre in London after watching it.

He said,I have just seen your film. I want to tell you that I live in London and my father also lives here. I had a fight with him 25 years ago and I have not spoken with him ever since. I have just come out of the theater after watching the film and I want to tell you that I am going to see my father right now.

That was fantastic. If a film can move somebody,it means that there is some element that still prevails.

Have the multiplexes changed the rural-urban contribution ratio with 60 per cent of the revenues now coming in from the cities?

I would imagine that because metros have multiplexes and multiplexes charge more money therefore monetarily the amount of return from cities is greater. Whether the numbers (of people) correspond with the collections is something I dont know. On one of my visits to Paris,I met some people in the film business and they never talked of the success of a film in terms of collections. When talking of the success of a film,we usually say,Sau crore ka dhanda kiya. In the West,they say,So many number of people went to see the film. I thought that was a novel idea of how to assess a films success or its true value.

And now you have a very successful Season 5 of KBC coming up,which is a first in the history of Indian television. What do you think worked?

The programme has a very attractive quality. Its the format that really works. After all,it has been running successfully in over 80 countries where I am not helming it. If I have been given a job I must do it to the best of my ability.

But the speeches on the show,which became extremely popular,were your idea?

That was something I introduced when I first started the show. And it came about from the concept of the after-dinner fireside family conversation when talk veered to literature,world matters and suchlike. The timing of the show was 9 pm when people are sitting down to dinner and I thought it would be nice to say something that was morally right. People want to see IPL,saas-bahu serials or kids want to watch cartoons but now they say that when the show comes on air,they gather the whole family and pressurise the kids to join them because for them its also a learning ground.

priyanka.sinhaexpressindia.com