Le prime del 30 ottobre 2015: Titli

Nel 2014 Titli era stato proiettato in prima mondiale in concorso a Cannes nella sezione Un certain regard (clicca qui). La pellicola è diretta da Kanu Behl, che ha collaborato anche alla sceneggiatura, e prodotta da Dibakar Banerjee, per conto di Yash Raj Films, e da Guneet Monga. È alquanto significativo che Aditya Chopra, proprietario di YRF, abbia finanziato un progetto la cui storia verte intorno ad una famiglia decisamente poco bollywoodiana. I personaggi, in Titli, sono descritti come disgustosi, brutali, violenti. Quanto al cast, Ranvir Shorey è affiancato da Lalit Behl, attore teatrale e padre del regista. Kanu Behl è una vecchia conoscenza di Dibakar Banerjee: i due, insieme, avevano redatto la sceneggiatura del clamoroso Love Sex Aur Dhokha. Trailer. Approfitto per segnalarvi l'articolo Kanu Behl’s indie film, Titli, may change the game for Indian cinema, di Aparna Pednekar, pubblicato il 31 ottobre 2015 da Brunch: 

'It’s actually dark, brutal and psychologically violent. Its principal characters are a dysfunctional family of carjackers in a gritty city that Patiala-born Behl knows like the back of his hand. They’re each more repulsive than the other, with the youngest, called Titli, trying desperately to escape the family business, and thus, the family. Powerlessness manifests as several kinds of cruelty in Titli. The film’s language alone caused alarms to go off with India’s censor board, which asked Behl to tone down the abuses before its India release. (...) Behl (...) wants to drag the squalid desi family and its skeletons out of the closet with viciousness.

All in the family

The son of writer-actor-director parents, Behl says he practically grew up backstage at theatre productions. (...) Behl, who faced the camera at age 12, remembers them shooting for 72 hours at a stretch. (...) Behl’s strained relationship with his father and memories of domestic discord not only found their way into Titli’s screenplay but into the casting too. (...) “I looked at a lot of senior actors for the part of Daddy, but couldn’t find anyone to nail the character’s energies,” he says. “It’s a very silent, inexpressive role with a latent intensity.” Behl eventually cast his own father Lalit (a National School of Drama alumnus) as the seemingly powerless father figure. Lalit Behl was the only one from the largely unknown cast to find himself working without a script until the last day of the shoot. The strategy was part of Behl’s (...) arsenal of unusual methods to push their actors. 

Ranvir Shorey, who turns in a hard-hitting performance as Titli’s hot-tempered elder brother, Vikram, attests to the unorthodox preparation. For a workshop, he was left in a room with Senior Behl where they were asked to share personal information that they’d never revealed to anyone else. “We wept like babies, sparking off a lifetime bond,” Shorey recalls. The unrelenting violence of the material, however, hit a raw nerve with Shorey. “I’ve had my brush with corporal punishment as the youngest of two brothers with a heavy-handed father,” he explains. “But in this film, I play the perpetrator of violence. The material became too close; a little out of control.”

The big fat Indian indie

It’s easy to think of Behl’s film as one of those “other India” films: festival-friendly stories about hope rising out of third-world squalor. But Behl says that Titli isn’t a “look down at an issue from a Western gaze” or a film that exoticises India. He and co-writer Sharat Katariya began writing the film during 2013’s Nirbhaya rape case as they tried to “achieve a larger understanding of the violence in our world”, an attempt (like so many of us made) to look at patriarchy and oppression in the context of violence. “It was always a very ‘us’ look at our lives,” Behl says. But he is heartened that even non-cinema people have embraced the film and its universal theme of family dysfunction. (...)

Titli, however, has more than just a brutally honest Indian idiom working for it. It’s co-produced by an odd pair - Dibakar Banerjee and Aditya Chopra. (...) The duo gave it a heft and marketing push that many indie films don’t get, with or without success abroad. Banerjee considers the partnership a massive advantage, but he’s also terribly realistic about independent cinema in India. “Independent films take long to gestate here,” he says. “With 800 films releasing in 52 weeks, it’s a struggle to hold on to the theatres and YRF helps us do that. In the next five years, we are going nowhere if the quantity of screens doesn’t increase and distribution channels don’t change. For now, for our audiences, a film like Titli is not a bad second option, after a Salman Khan film,” he adds wryly.

Protégé rising 

Banerjee rounds out Titli’s crew (which includes Aditya Chopra, Katariya and Behl’s ex-wife and the film’s editor, Namrata Rao). His intellectual, detached mentor-protégé relationship with Behl, who assisted him on Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008) and co-wrote Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010), works well for both men. “Kanu has unplumbed depths which he does not reveal,” says the ace filmmaker. (...) “Our relationship is focused on the job at hand. The only impassioned discussions, bitching and fighting sessions we’ve had have been on films. We’ll finish work on a film, won’t talk at all, then call after a year and pick up [on work] without missing a beat,” Banerjee adds.

Having lost out on the opportunity to direct Titli (it was his first reaction when he heard the script), Banerjee makes sure he has the last word on the film’s desi appeal at least. “The average Indian, I believe, is quite mental,” he says. “We’re a country in the throes of a nervous breakdown, living on the edge of reality, which is why we need the outlet of escapist cinema. But that also makes us schizophrenic. In this scenario, a film like Titli provides some kind of a connect with reality”.'

Dibakar Banerjee, the best director today

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Dibakar Banerjee a Parul Khanna, pubblicata oggi da Brunch. Dibakar Banerjee, the best director today:

'Your filmmaking is influenced by...

My first influence is my family, which has consumed and created entertainment. We would read, listen to the radio, put up plays during Durga Puja in Delhi. Doordarshan is another influence, it gave me a chance to see regional and world cinema. I would also visit all the film festivals in Delhi. My non-Bengali friends, my life in Delhi have been a huge influences too. Mumbai, where I live now, my life here, it's transformation from a manufacturing city to a services city, all have had an impact on me. My days at National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad opened up an unknown western to me. My wife has been the deepest influence. She's very aesthetic and she has created this beautiful life full of arts, books, poetry and even plants.

You signed a three-films contract with Yash Raj. Is that a rite of passage into the elite club?

What rubbish! This is what I don't like. This bracketing of people. What is elite about working with YRF? I discovered that Aditya Chopra and I are very similar - we both are extremely professional, prefer our films to speak for themselves, don't give interview to be in newspapers every other week, and are passionate about films. We were very clear since the first meeting that I have the creative controls and YRF will be in-charge of marketing the film. It will be my vision. The alliance was based on the clear understanding that if YRF changes my way of filmmaking, it will lose out on what they set out looking for.

The industry is celebrating outsiders...

Yes, people from film families and outsiders are co-existing. The reason the audience watches a Dibakar or Anurag [Kashyap] film is same as Zoya [Akhtar] and Karan [Johar] films - good filmmaking. Karan made his first film when his father wasn't doing too well, he had to go through a number of hardships. And these people have to prove themselves much more. I have nothing to lose, it's like someone pointed out to me, 'Even if your film fails, you will be put on a pedestal and stories will be written about your edgy way of filmmaking'. But people are very harsh on these guys. So, everyone's working with some or other handicap. For one Karan Johar who has made it, there are five who haven't. The basics for survival are standard for everyone - a little more passion, a lot more hard work , a much better vision - than the other person.

Is your story of struggle very romantic?

Unfortunately, no (laughs). (...) When I was working in the advertising world in Delhi, it was at its peak. (...) I was this hotshot Ad guy, making a good amount of money. Even after I shifted to Mumbai, my wife, who's into the corporate world was making enough and while Anurag was struggling and making ends meet, I was living in a posh flat. And have never worked under anyone or struggled for money since I was 26.

So making your first movie, Khosla Ka Ghosla was a cakewalk? (...)

I came from an advertising background, I had shot 50 commercials, so I pretty much knew the mechanics of filmmaking. But the struggle started when I moved to Mumbai in 2004. There were no takers for the film. Every distributor had seen the film but no one wanted to take it. I was in wilderness then. I was sort of in a black hole. But when that two-year period ended, I knew I was invincible, I had learnt most things about life and films in that time. I had become negative and I was going to give up (a friend had told me that the moment you stop expecting, things happen), and just when I did, it got taken by UTV Motion Pictures.

You are one of those people who run away to the woods to write?

No, no, I grew up in a family of six, in three rooms. One room had my parents, one was the drawing room, in the third room, it was my grandmother, the TV, dining table, me, my sister, me and the cupboard full of books. I learnt study to study with the TV on. So I am capable of doing my shit, it doesn't matter where as long as the weather is good. Of course, I always co-write. I want to stay away from the trap of a director writing - scripts become too indulgent, directors have a bloated way of writing. So if I collaborate, we can just stick to good storytelling. I have co-written Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Shanghai. (...) I also (...) co-wrote Love Sex Aur Dhokha. (...) And I take inspiration from everything around me - books, music, normal people I meet, something someone said while we are rolling on the floor and drunk. Like Karan said something hilarious yesterday, and I was like, 'this as to make way into a film'.

Women are kind of non-existent in your films.

I haven't a clue. I think I need to get myself examined (laughs), because 60 to 70 per cent of my team - scriptwriter, assistant director, art director - comprises women. Maybe, because in my head I don't see men and women as separate entities, but again I feel women are more organized and structured than men'.

Le prime del 3 maggio 2013: Bombay Talkies

Il 3 maggio 2013 il cinema indiano festeggia i suoi primi 100 anni di vita. Per l'occasione, viene distribuito nelle sale Bombay Talkies, film suddiviso in quattro parti, ciascuna delle quali diretta da un regista diverso: Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee e Zoya Akhtar. Il cast è di tutto rispetto: Rani Mukherjee, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vineet Kumar Singh, Ranvir Shorey. Ranbir Kapoor presta la voce narrante. La pellicola è stata proiettata in prima mondiale il 28 aprile a Delhi in occasione del Centenary Film Festival, e verrà presentata a Cannes, fuori concorso,  nell'evento Séance de gala en l'honneur de l'Inde. La colonna sonora è composta dal talentuoso Amit Trivedi. Vi propongo i video dei brani Bachchan, Akkad Bakkad, nonché il sensazionale Apna Bombay Talkies, che riunisce un nugolo di star (clicca qui). Trailer. 

Vedi anche:

- Festival di Cannes 2013

- Bombay Talkies: recensioni, 4 maggio 2013

Dibakar Banerjee: I am anti-dumb

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Dibakar Banerjee a Priya Gupta, pubblicata da The Times of India l'8 giugno 2012. I am anti-dumb: Dibakar Banerjee:

'Unlike many other directors in Bollywood who are star-chasers, you’re known for your unconventional casting. (...)

Today, people are calling Emraan Hashmi a box office star, but one year ago when I cast him in “Shanghai”, people who are seen as opinion makers, sneered at me and said, ‘Who? That kissie guy?’ I, of course, can’t stop smiling because I can stand on a roof top and say, ‘This person you have been sniggering at all these years can do this (performance)’. The same goes for Abhay Deol. When I was casting him in ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ they said, ‘Why are you casting him? He is so non-filmi’, and then suddenly, he became the poster boy for alternative cinema. This gives me the strength to take the next step forward. For instance, you have no idea how much pressure I was put under before the making of “LSD”. After two National Award-winning films, you are expected to work on a big film with a big star. “LSD” was a small film with unknown actors, and yet became successful. Today, I get calls asking me how I made trend-setting films like “LSD”. Even with “Shanghai”, I cast Prosenjit Chatterjee because I wanted the audience to see a new face, and yet feel the impact of a star when he comes into the frame. Filmmaking is all about giving that juicy surprise; a good, commercial surprise. (...)

Which film directors do you look up to?

Shekhar Kapur. Anurag Kashyap, who really makes life quite interesting. It’s because of Anurag Kashyap’s presence that Indian cinema is exciting and can never be secure. He creates this energy of discomfort. I love his “Black Friday”. I was an unknown film director when I saw “Black Friday”. I went up to him and shook his hand. Of course he was too drunk to notice me. The same with Vishal Bhardwaj. After I saw “Maqbool”, I went and shook his hand, and said to him, ‘Today you gave me the courage to go ahead and make my film’. I also remember seeing “Bandit Queen” and going into deep depression because I thought this guy has robbed me of my only shot at glory. This was the film that changed my life. I could not believe that an Indian film could be made like this. (...)

You’ve called your film “Shanghai”. All of us know that connotation. Are you anti-development?

I am not anti-anything. I am just pro-brains. Any development plan that has been thought out, the future road-mapped and if done with a sense of justice and fair play, I am totally open to it. However, if you are doing anything in a dumbass way, which in the long run, creates more problems, even though it may be the flavour of the season, I am against it. Which is why I say I am anti-dumb.

Does “Shanghai” draw anything from your personal life?

Every film of mine draws from my personal life. This film draws from where I live in Parel (Mumbai), the area outside. When I come down from the 20th floor of my swanky building into the chawls [grandi caseggiati], I see people who have been living there for a century moving away to make way for the new multi-storey structures coming up. I am not saying it is good or bad. I can see society change in front of my own eyes. I can see history operate in front of my own eyes. On the 20th floor, every night, I am dancing at a party because down there in the chawl I hear a new DJ with a new remix of a new song and there are political meetings, there are marriages and there is one festival every week. So it’s like I am sitting on a cultural treasure house and every day I get something new. All of this has gone into "Shanghai" - the street band, the loudspeaker, the drum beat, (...) the non-stop celebration... So, even though “Shanghai” is a political thriller, in the film we are out on the road dancing, everybody is partying on the road'.

Emraan Hashmi: Never thought I would end up where I am today

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Emraan Hashmi a Sonil Dedhia, pubblicata da Rediff il 5 giugno 2012. Emraan: Never thought I would end up where I am today:

'Shanghai is one of the biggest movies of the year. What do you think of that?

It's a new time in our industry with the kind of films that are being made and Shanghai is one step in that direction. All these years our industry has functioned in a formulaic way where if something becomes a hit or works at the box office, it gets repeated again and again. Very few filmmakers step out of the crease and try to do something different and Dibakar Banerjee is one of them. I would like to work in more films like Shanghai which surprise audiences. I would like Shanghai to do the same kind of business that any other commercial film would do.

Director Dibakar Banerjee and you have explored the diverse sides of filmmaking. How has working with him benefited you?

The way Dibakar shoots the film is very different from the way I have worked in my films. He does a lot of research and I guess that can be seen when he starts making the film. He starts scripting the film a year before he shoots it and the post-production takes almost a year. That's commendable. He takes almost three years from the ideation to completion of a film. There is intent to make a brilliant film. I've always wanted to work with a director like Dibakar. He doesn't overlook minor details. He wants to do things out of the box and break the mould of how you would perceive an actor or a film and present it in a completely different way.

Were you on the same page as Dibakar since day one?

It was difficult for me to get into the process of how Dibakar functions. I work in a certain style. Generally, I read the script, learn the dialogues, go on the sets and give my shot. Dibakar wanted me to get into the skin of the character. He made me go through 10 workshops and then he started working on my physical appearance. I had to put on weight for my character. I started working on my character almost a month and a half in advance, which is unlike anything that I have done before. 

It's true that you look very different in this film from what we have seen before.

My character in the film is quite complex. I play a small-town journalist, who also shoots marriage videos. He is also a photographer and also shoots porn films. I've never played a character from a small town and so this role was very different for me, both in terms of getting into his psyche and changing my physicality. Let me tell you, before Shanghai I never attended any workshop to prepare for my character.

Did you, at any point of time, question Dibakar about your looks in the film?

No, but I asked him whether he could have made me look any worse and he replied, 'Give me one more film and I will make you look even worse.' 

You have admitted that you are not a good dancer but you managed to dance very freely in one of the songs.

It was very difficult for me to do the dance steps in Bharat Mata Ki Jai. I have issues when people give me dance steps when I am on the sets. Dibakar knew that and asked the choreographer to give me the steps well in advance. I also saw a lot of videos of processions and would rehearse a lot after watching them. In fact, the day we shot the song, Dibakar also did the steps to make me comfortable. (...)

You have never been in any controversies nor are you seen on the party circuit.

When I am not working on a film, I dissociate from films completely. I like to enjoy my space. I like to travel so I keep travelling. Also I have non-filmi friends so they don't talk about films. I like to keep it that way'.

Le prime dell'8 giugno 2012: Shanghai

Shanghai si preannuncia uno dei film più interessanti del 2012. Diretto dal talentuoso Dibakar Banerjee, è un thriller a sfondo politico, adattamento cinematografico di Z, romanzo del 1966 dello scrittore greco Vassilis Vassilikos. Dibakar ha lavorato per un anno e mezzo al progetto. I produttori hanno incontrato Vassilikos, il quale si è mostrato molto sorpreso ma soddisfatto della sceneggiatura. Il cast è di quelli da perderci il sonno. Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, Emraan Hashmi e la superstar bengali Prosenjit Chatterjee, insieme sul grande schermo, costituiscono una golosità per veri appassionati di cinema indiano. Vishal-Shekhar firmano l'intrigante colonna sonora, che include anche un'item song, Imported Kamariya, visualizzata dalla modella britannica Scarlett Mellish Wilson. Il brano Bharat Mata Ki Jai vanta un testo redatto dallo stesso Banerjee, e in India ha suscitato un vespaio. Vi segnalo inoltre Khudaaya, Duaa, e Morcha. Trailer.

Aggiornamenti dell'8 giugno 2012:

- recensione di Raja Sen, Rediff, ****: 'At first glance, the irony is staggering. A country pretending to be another, brighter country, being shown up by a film that itself borrows form and content from another country. Yet so strident is Dibakar Banerjee's voice as a filmmaker that even this adaptation (...) is turned into a strikingly relevant story of our times and our crimes. (...) Banerjee's genius has always been most visible in his meticulous detailing, and this latest film is expectedly crammed with beautiful nuance. (...) The little touches are smashing, fleshing out most of the characters and making them into more than words and actors. Yet what words, what actors. Emraan Hashmi (...) delivers a knockout punch as he masters a complicated role. From his infuriatingly goofy laugh to poor attempts at making conversation, Hashmi proves himself the best of a very fine ensemble. (...) It's one of the best performances from one of our leading men in quite some time. (...) Bravo. (...) Banerjee must be lauded for not dumbing things down and creating a mature, serious film that engages, thrills and amuses. (...) Shanghai is all Dibakar, who we must lift on our shoulders with grateful pride. And we must exult in the fact that this D is never silent'.

- recensione di Mayank Shekhar: 'A picture that strikingly captures the chaos and curfews of middle India, (...) exposing the rule of the mob where democracy is merely centred on state-craft and elections, as against statesmanship or equality. (...) The first Indian mainstream film (...) to dig into the protocols and plotting that greases the wheels of Indian civil services. (...) We complain about the system quite often. Well, this is the system. Civil servants over time become minor mimics of the looting political masters they salute to. (...) A gritty drama, just as amusing as it is disturbing. Between artistry and analysis, Dibakar Bannerjee, without doubt the most exciting filmmaker around, chooses to entertain first. (...) Still, in its breathless pace, the narrative either skims over or completely overlooks several nuances and facets of Indian democracy that would play key roles in a high-profile case such as this. (...) Banerjee smartly finds in the book the compelling central conflict of rising India: displacement of poor locals versus development for richer millions; people’s empowerment versus nation’s economic growth. Neither side can be ignored. India, at present, houses the world’s largest number of people displaced for development projects. Not all of this movement could’ve been fair. (...) This is that important, universal story of modern India, interestingly told, enticingly captured. It must be watched, and relished, for sure'.

Aggiornamento del 12 giugno 2012 - Meet the spanking new Emraan Hashmi!, Shelly Walia, Rediff:

'"The film gives you a goodbye gift. One gets engaged and entertained while watching it, but in retrospect, you realise you are carrying with you a meaning, a message, a reality," says Banerjee. (...) "Abhay's role as a typical Tamilian bureaucrat did not come easy. The character is the voice of the establishment and has power, but is conservative. His character has shades of grey, which keep the audience guessing. To get the accent right, he had to undergo a month-long language workshop where he learnt to speak English and Hindi with a Tamil twang," says Banerjee. Deol also trained himself with the IAS [Indian Administrative Service] machinery to get the body language and the stern expression correct. "He plays a character much older than his real self. He needed to walk with a slight stoop, as someone who has led a sedentary life of working on the laptop for long hours," Banerjee adds.

For Hashmi's character, Banerjee needed an actor with whom the audience would connect. "Jogi is a street-smart cameraperson and part-time porn filmmaker. We researched quite a bit on porn filmmaking. The character had to appear dirty and sleazy, so we made him gain 10 kg. He had to have a paunch, blackened teeth and a darker complexion. He also took dancing lessons. Everything about him is in stark contrast to his earlier image," Banerjee says. (...)

Like Banerjee, Hashmi too steps into unexplored territory with Shanghai. A step away from the Mahesh Bhatt camp (most of his successful films have so far been with Bhatt) and in the midst of an offbeat cast, the actor outshines everybody else. But experts don't think this will do much to change his "lover boy" image. Hashmi today is the example of a successful actor with several box office hits, but one who has not been offered any brands to endorse. Brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor says, "The movie will not help Hashmi in an image makeover, despite this being an out-of-the-box role for him. Brand advertisements are all related to happy stars." (...) John Abraham's happy-go-lucky image works well for him in the advertising space, though he is not as successful at the box office, Bijoor says. Brand expert Gullu Sen says that the Indian consumer is still very conservative. "It took Salman Khan years to rebuild his image. For Hashmi this must be a beginning, but there is a long way to go before he starts endorsing brands".'

Aggiornamento del 16 luglio 2012: ieri Shanghai è stato proiettato a Baghdad, alla presenza di Safia Taleb Ali al-Suhail, membro del parlamento iracheno, e del politico indiano Suresh Reddy. L'evento è stato organizzato a ridosso  della zona internazionale della città. La corrente elettrica è mancata un paio di volte, ma pare che il pubblico presente in sala - soldati compresi - abbia comunque apprezzato la pellicola. Shanghai è il primo film indiano proiettato in Iraq negli ultimi vent'anni.

Vedi anche:

- Abhay Deol e Emraan Hashmi nel nuovo film di Dibakar Banerjee: Shanghai

- Dibakar Banerjee: Emraan Hashmi wanted to look ugly

- Kalki Koechlin: Kissing on screen is not a big deal

- Emraan Hashmi: Never thought I would end up where I am today, 17 giugno 2012

- Dibakar Banerjee: I am anti-dumb, 23 giugno 2012

- The Dibakarian way of life, 18 aprile 2022

Hay Festival of Literature and Arts 2012

La 25esima edizione dell'Hay Festival of Literature and Arts si svolge dal 31 maggio al 10 giugno 2012 nella città dei libri: Hay-on Wye, nel Galles. La manifestazione prevede una rassegna cinematografica che include i seguenti titoli indiani: Rang De Basanti (Soha Ali Khan presente alla proiezione), Khosla Ka Ghosla (Anupam Kher presente alla proiezione), Firaaq (Nandita Das presente alla proiezione). In programma anche un incontro con Deepa Mehta e Salman Rushdie che discuteranno dell'adattamento cinematografico de I figli della mezzanotte.

Salman Rushdie e Deepa Mehta, Hay-on Wye 2012

Kalki Koechlin: Kissing on screen is not a big deal

Prosenjit Chatterjee e Kalki Koechlin in Shanghai

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Kalki Koechlin a Sonil Dedhia, pubblicata oggi da Rediff. Kissing on screen is not a big deal: 

'[In Shanghai] You play an Indian girl of mixed parentage who looks like a foreigner. Did your personal experience of growing up in Ooty help you?

Yes. I can definitely relate to my character Shalini's anger in the film. She is a small town girl and the people in the town see her as an outsider just because she looks like a foreigner. Even though she belongs to that town, people don't take her seriously and men try to lech at her. Looking back at my growing up days I can relate to all these things. (...)

Would you say it was an emotionally draining role?

Yes, it is one of the toughest roles that I have played so far. I was rewuired to cry and scream my head off. There are many moments in the film that are really intense. There is a scene in the film where I have to beat someone and it was really tough for me to do. We finished the film in a month. We shot in small towns in Latur and Baramati where there was no proper food or electricity. He [Dibakar Banerjee] almost made me cry during the shoot but I must say that the hard work has paid off.

You are working with Prosenjit [Chatterjee] and Emraan Hashmi for the first time. How was the experience?

I didn't know how big a star Prosenjit was before I worked with him in this film. He made us feel really comfortable. He would hang out with us and we ate together. He was very down to earth. On the other hand, I had an image in my mind about Emraan Hashmi that was very filmy and romantic. He got into his character right on the first day of the workshop. He totally surprised me. He has a great sense of humour.

The kissing scene between you and Prosenjit has been in the news...

Indian cinema is still at an adolescent stage when it comes to kissing or intimate scenes. The ban on kissing scenes in films was lifted in 1980 so it's about time that we get used to it. I don't think it is a big deal, nor do I think about it much. I really don't see it as controversial. The media creates the controversy. I think using the kissing scene in the promotions of the film was inevitable. If we don't use it to promote the film someone else will pick it up.  

There is a very funny incident which took place during the filming of the scene.

Yes, it was a very funny but an intense situation when we were shooting for the scene. Dibakar had given us standing instructions not to stop kissing till he says 'cut'. We started filming the scene and after a while we realised that Dibakar was oblivious to the fact that he had to say 'cut', and instead got busy shooting some other scene! I got very angry with him at that time (Smiles)'.

Dibakar Banerjee: Emraan Hashmi wanted to look ugly

Emraan Hashmi in Shanghai

Chi avrebbe mai immaginato che un giorno Emraan Hashmi, il serial kisser di Bollywood, sarebbe stato scritturato nientemeno che da Dibakar Banerjee? Eppure per Shanghai è successo. Vi segnalo Emraan wanted to look ugly: Dibakar Banerjee, una divertente intervista concessa dal duo a Priyanka Jain, pubblicata oggi da Hindustan Times:

'What do you like about each other's brand of cinema?

Emraan: When I saw Khosla Ka Ghosla, I was impressed. Later, I came to know this strong and conceptually brilliant film was made on a miniscule budget. When Dibakar first messaged me, saying he wanted to meet to discuss a possible film, I had already decided to say yes. I had to work with him. He makes unique films that others would shy away from, and yet manage to strike a chord with the audience. Shanghai, though different from his usual films, does have his stamp on it. It’s a thriller, a whodunit and entertaining as well. The film is profound but it’s not preachy.

Dibakar: I have liked Emraan since his debut film Footpath (2003). He had little to do in that film, but he stood out from the rest. Despite the glam-heavy films he has done, you can see how his eyes speak a lot. I love how they can emote so much. Emraan always clicks with the audience instantly. He is so relatable in the films he has done that your heart goes out for the character.

So far, both of you have explored diverse sides of filmmaking. How has working together benefited both of you? Also, tell us more about each other's contributions to the film.

Emraan: There is a certain way in which Dibakar envisions characters in his films, a quality that is very unique to him. I haven’t seen things like that before in the films I have done so far. There is a certain subtext to every performance and role. He goes into the complexities of what each character is thinking - where it’s coming from, where it’s going and what it’s going through. That means even more hard work for the actor. He does a lot of prep work.

Dibakar: It is a winning formula for both of us. We were diametrically opposite, but what is more important is the coming together of Abhay Deol and Emraan Hashmi on screen. That is the odd, unique combination; people don’t know what to expect. A lot of people told me I had gone mad casting these two together and warned me against it. But I enjoy going against the grain.

Emraan, will being in a Dibakar film help you shed the serial kisser tag and let people take you seriously? And Dibakar, will Emraan’s mass appeal help you get eyeballs for your films?

Emraan: I don’t sign films with directors simply because their previous ventures had a Rs 50 crore opening. I don’t do south remakes just because it’s the trend now. I don’t jump onto those bandwagons. I like people like Dibakar Banerjee, Raj Kumar Gupta who are make interesting and unique cinema. I want to be part of their films. It’s not the need to shed a tag but the desire to do more. I take my films pretty seriously, be it Jannat 2 or Shanghai.

Dibakar: Of course. Emraan has a pull with his audience. However, we aren’t totally counting on that because we have cast Emraan in a non-sensual role. In fact, Emraan was excited when we told him: ‘You won’t look hot on screen!’. He jumped up and down in excitement when I said :‘We will make you look ugly.’ In this film, you will see a very repulsive and grotesque Emraan as Jogi Parmar.

Emraan, was it challenging to work with a director known for his strong subject-oriented films and maverick style of filming? Dibakar, was it daunting to cast Emraan in a non-glam avatar?

Emraan: I had to go through ten workshops with Dibakar’s team. It breaks you as an actor! He hurled me into the fire with this one. Jogi is not even five percent close to who I am. The character is someone I don’t understand at all. The whole shooting experience has been a discovery of sorts for me.

Dibakar: The audience is in for a surprise from Emraan in this film. He was initially uncomfortable and nervous about becoming Jogi. But he has put in a lot of hard work. Which other established actors would go through acting workshops to get into character? The first day when he came to the sets after the workshop, the crew was abuzz about how they saw Jogi in him and not Emraan!'.