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Life after Bangkok
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Thanks to “Aashayein”, there is hope for Nagesh Kukunoor after the disastrous “Bombay to Bangkok”
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Photo D.Gopalakrishnan
new hope Nagesh Kukunoor
Nagesh Kukunoor emerged as the new hope of the film industry with films such as “Hyderabad Blues”, “Iqbal” and “Dor”. . He believes people come to cinema halls just for entertainment, it is the director’s job to lace it with a message. His last outing at the box office, “Bombay to Bangkok”, however proved to be neither here nor there. As he promises to turn the tide with “Aashayein” here are excerpts from an interview:
What can we expect from “Aashayein”?
It’s about ‘live life now’. It’s about fulfilling your dreams. I am a little secretive about the plot but the story revolves around John Abraham who plays a gambler, whiling away his life without much purpose and how his life changes unexpectedly.
Something similar to your life’s graph?
In my case, it took me a long time to gather courage to leave engineering and do what I wanted to do. But yes, at least I was able to do it. I dread being an old man ruminating if I had taken a chance then…
Do you agree our value system perpetuates planning?
Absolutely! It is grilled into the middle-class children to build up the bank balance by following the trodden path. I have met people who realise in the middle of their careers that they are not happy with what they are doing. But then there are little options left. The new generation is much stronger in making its career decisions.
Why John?
Frankly speaking, I had not seen any of his work before casting him. Certain scripts require certain budgets and certain budgets require certain heroes. John fit the slot. Unmindful of adjectives like cool dude, with which he is generally defined, I felt he has an extremely honest face. I am known for casting against the tide.
For somebody who made his first film in 70 lakhs, you also seem to have fallen into the budget trap.
I started on my own, so I had to think about a plot which could be shot indoors and didn’t require sets. Now I have the opportunity to think big. When I made “Hyderabad Blues 2”, my aim was to keep the ambience of the first part going. Still I ended up spending four times more than the original. And critics still said: what shoddy work!
You are among the first ones to sense that the marriage between big money commercial conglomerates and sensible art cinema is possible.
I always felt there is a territory between commercial and art cinema which needs to be explored. Why should the audience suffer garbage just because commercial cinema doesn’t rely on telling sensible stories or money-starved art cinema can’t think about a bigger canvas and ends up doing technically shoddy boring work?
Your “Bombay to Bangkok” was criticised. I accept the criticism but I don’t like people saying why has he tried such a subject after “Iqbal” and “Dor”. Here everybody wants to slot you while the very basis of my success lies in doing something against the tide.
Sometimes you hit the bull’s eye sometimes you don’t.
ANUJ KUMAR
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