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Photo: Anu Pushkarna

Wise move Ravi Chopra with actress Indrani Haldhar

Stepping into your father’s shoes is not easy. Ravi Chopra, son of B.R. Chopra, the man behind films such as Naya Daur, Gumrah, Insaaf Ka Tarazu and Nikah, realised this early. After assisting his father as also his uncle, Yash Chopra, he came into his own and came up with films such as The Burning Train, Mazdoor and Baghban. Best known for his series Mahabharat on television, Ravi is now coming up with Sujata on Sony Entertainment Television. Meanwhile, his production Bhoothnath is ready for release. Excerpts from an interview:

Keep it simple. We don’t start with looking for a message, as it will appear forced. No director makes films for his own consumption. The first criterion is an interesting story which has entertainment value. Then we subtly bring in the message. Be it Naya Daur or Insaaf Ka Tarazu we always try to provide solutions to the issues we raise. Sujata deals with how middle-aged women find themselves lonely despite being surrounded by their family. How the husband and the children forget the woman’s sacrifices. After holding a mirror to society in the first few episodes, we will move on to how a woman can make her presence felt.

It depends on what the audiences want. If they make Taare Zameen Par a hit, they will get more films of the same quality. But if they rush to see Race, which I personally didn’t like, some film-makers will feel encouraged to try similar confusing subjects. Television as a medium is younger than cinema in our country. It has yet to learn how to balance commercial and aesthetic values. The scenario is, however, improving for sure.

No, (laughs) he will be seen all through the film. Yes, Shah Rukh makes a guest appearance, as the father of the kid who makes friends with Bhoothnath.

The film is Vivek’s idea, so I didn’t want to fiddle with his perspective. As for the family part, these days you can’t survive on one film for four years. The banner needs more output, and for this you need more creative minds.

In our set-up there is no such requirement. One needs to keep the environment light for child artistes. For instance, Aman (the child artiste in Bhoothnath) used to play a lot of cricket on the sets. I encouraged him. As soon as a shot was over, I used to ask one of the assistants to go and play with him. We do keep an ambulance on the sets in case there is an emergency.

Yes, we do. Yash uncle still comes every day to have lunch with us.

A couple of channels requested me to do this but I refused. I consider remakes a bankruptcy of ideas. That’s why I don’t remake any of my father’s films.

The project is on. We are working on the script. It is so long that we want to make it in two parts. The first part will end at the cheer haran episode and the rest of it will be covered in the second part. We plan to release the two parts within a space of four weeks.

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