Days for 'Shava Shava' movies are gone: Tigmanshu Dhulia
The director on staying off the beaten track when it comes to making films
When he sits down to express his views, it becomes apparent that he's
very similar to the kind of films he makes. Tigmanshu Dhulia speaks his
mind without mincing words. The filmmaker, who started his career with
Doordarshan before switching to the big screen, sounds thrilled to work
with Irrfan again in his upcoming sequel. In a chat with us, Tigmanshu
talks about cinema and its various facets...
What drives you as a filmmaker?
Society, the rights and the wrongs in it, the newspapers, random
incidents of our industry, politics, biographies, the lack of a hero
whom I can
personally admire... these are some of the factors that inspire me to
keep writing and coming up with films.
Is that why your work tends to reflect reality?
Not only mine, even others' too if you notice. Earlier, the stories used
to be way too unreal. If you talk about all the Shava Shava movies, you
often
end up asking yourself `Was that for real?` and the answer you usually
get was a very simple: `They don't exist.` Those films were meant to
cater
to the NRI crowd. Storytelling as an art is changing now.
So we're moving towards rustic backgrounds for unexplored plots?
See, the practice of classifying a Bollywood film into urbane and rural
is quite misguided. Any film that doesn't take place in Mumbai or Delhi
is
conveniently labelled as rustic. It doesn't matter even if the story is
happening in Lucknow, which has equally large malls and multiplexes like
any
other city! To me, stories matter, places don't.
And is it a conscious decision to sketch strong women characters?
When I first thought of adapting Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, I knew that
somebody would be taking Meena Kumari's role forward. I couldn't just
delete
or dilute her part. That's how Mahie Gill's character took form. And she
naturally comes across as a level-headed fearless woman with a distinct
voice of her own.
What was the greatest challenge in writing Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns?
With every sequel, you introduce new characters. So that introduction of
a third actor - Irrfan in this case - raises obvious conflicts. He had
to
be written in a certain manner.
How is your equation with Irrfan?
We two go back to our National School of Drama days. I respect him a
lot, not only because we are close friends but also because of the way
he
has carved himself a place in the pantheons of actors. There is nobody
else who comes close to the varied work he is currently doing.
Do you see yourself going back to television for a change?
TV has no life. It has become too regressive. Things were far better
when I was making television shows. Nowadays, it's all about TRP. I'm 45
so
my priority should be to create things I'll be remembered for, right?
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