I am glad that my first film flopped -Madhur Bhandarkar

MADHUR BHANDARKAR tells Jyothi Venkatesh that he thinks that he is God's blessed child, on the release of his latest film Jail...

Excerpts from the conversation held at his office.

How did the concept of Jail evolve?

Jail is a subject which I had always wanted to make. In fact, it has always been my endeavour to make films which are contrasting like Page 3, Traffic Signal Corporate, Fashion, which was diabolically different with glamour quotient. In fact, I wanted to make a film on a different segment and strata and depict the ringside of a jail from the point of view of a common man.

How would you rate your actors like Mugdha Godse and Neil Nitin Mukesh?

In spite of being with Kangana Ranaut and Priyanka Chopra, I think Mugdha Godse did a commendable job in Fashion and stood her own. I have cast her in Jail in a completely deglamorised avatar clad in churidar, as an air hostess, in contrast to what she did in Fashion, while Neil plays the role of Parag Dixit in Jail. He plays a character which works in a finance company in the corporate sector. I would say that Neil is one of the brilliant and talented actors of our time. He is not only much focused but also intelligent and understands the character very well.

You have received encomiums from the critics as well as rewards at the box office!

I think I am God’s blessed child. I have had adulation from film critics without having a God father or a sugar daddy. I have enjoyed success because I came into the film industry as a guy who had absolutely no film backdrop. Today I have come to a position after having churned out a flop like Trishakti in the beginning stage of my career after I branched out as an independent director after my stint with Ram Gopal Varma as his assistant.

How did you feel when Ashutosh demeaned Priyanka Chopra when she bagged the best Actress award for Fashion?

I confess I reacted the way any filmmaker would have reacted when Ashutosh Gowarikar declared that Priyanka Chopra did not deserve the award for the best actress for her performance in my film Fashion, as much as Aishwarya Rai did for her performance in his film Jodha Akbar. It was in a very bad taste, because it was a public podium where you just cannot demean any one, especially Priyanka Chopra who, besides the fact that she had acted in my film Fashion, is also a dear friend of mine. I was indeed taken aback and shaken because I had always found Ashutosh to be a sensible person who talks with conviction.

Can you elucidate?

Every person has his or her own view on any particular topic but we cannot come on a public platform and state whatever one feels and set out to question the Jury, especially once the Jury has decided who the award winners are, because you should respect the Jury. I have attended almost every award function in town as well as abroad from Chandni Bar to Fashion. When Tabu did not get any award for her brilliant performance in Chandni Bar, I did not go and protest on the stage, because I have always believed that we are one big family and have to live in close proximity. Till today, I have never said that I deserved an award more than any other director when I did not get a popular award.

Are you ashamed of your film Trishakti which had bombed at the box office?

The reason I was convinced to make Trishakti half heartedly way back in 1997 was that I was fully aware of the fact that beggars cannot be choosers, especially because almost 80 percent of the film industry used to make that kind of cinema though I felt I could make emotional content-oriented films even then. I now shudder to think that if Trishakti had clicked, I would have made only the kind of pot boiler films which belonged to the same genre like Trishakti and hence would not have been able to reinvent myself by pushing the envelope. I confess that the failure of my debut film Trishakti was actually a stepping stone for me to become the brand Madhur Bhandarkar, whether I like it or not.

Why do you abhor the idea of working with stars in your films?

A lot of people ask me why I do not want to work with stars. If I have a script which justifies me casting stars in it, I’d definitely work with stars. It is wrong to say that I opt for newcomers because I am scared of stars interfering with me on the sets. Didn’t I cast Priyanka Chopra in Fashion when the script demanded that I cast her? Didn’t Bipasha Basu do justice to her role in Corporate? Bipasha says that Corporate is to her what Pakeeza was to the late Meena Kumari. No one thought that the actress who had made her debut with Ajnabi would end up giving a performance like the one she did in Corporate. I would be honest to state that no star has interfered with me right from Chandni Bar to Jail, because I have my kind of style and believe in making my kind of cinema as a film maker.

--SAMPURN