Snippets

After making Khosla Ka Ghosla which catered to the middle class, director Dibakar Banerjee's next venture will be a period film based on the 30s. "I am currently working on two scripts. The first film is a period thriller which will be mounted on a very big canvas in Kolkata. The big budget will not reflect on-screen, but every penny spent will go into the scene. We are conducting a research for the visual and my assistants and designers are working on it. My next film will be the rise and fall of a con man. It will be based on a very funny and unique character who has not been presented on the Indian screen till now. The character is very charismatic, intelligent and totally against law," says the director.

Dibakar had delved into his past for creating Khosla Ka Ghosla since he grew up in Delhi. He says, "The film reflects several situations and characters that I have seen in Delhi. I believe a good film comes out of a subject that the filmmaker knows well and I know Delhi as I have stayed there."

He adds, "I will make films with my point of view. Khosla Ka Ghosla dealt with social problems as felt by a family. There was a con man in it but you never saw the police or the politicians interfering, neither did you see what Khurana does in the evening with an item girl. Even the music was not planned. It came through the edit. We were looking for reference music pieces and our sources were Neena Simone, Blur and modern rock. We put five themes together and re-edited it, which was an integral part of the film," reveals Dibakar. Incidentally, Dibakar belongs to a family of musicians. His mother is a classical singer and he plays the tabla quite well.

The director is busy these days with a film on polio, which will be released on November 12. The short film has Amitabh Bachchan spreading the message of prevention. "There are many cases of polio being detected in India and we are appealing to people to help us destroy the cause. The film has been shot differently and has a natural theme and content. We have used a new angle and approach so as to lure people to bring their children in for the polio dose," says Dibakar.

Veteran Malayalam actor Mohanlal, who is playing Thakur in Ram Gopal Varma's Sholay, almost lost his voice while enacting some dramatic scenes for the film on the eve of Diwali. "The scenes were very dramatic. They required me to scream and shout a lot. As a result, I had almost lost my voice," said Mohanlal who was almost whispering. But the actor continued shooting right through the next day. "Because the shooting has to be completed, and I had to return home in two days," the star said.

Mohanlal is a maverick who had no aspirations to make it in Hindi cinema. The last time he was seen in a Hindi film was for Varma's Company, in which he played a honest police officer. "We've been shooting solo scenes with Mohanlal over Diwali. And they required a lot of screaming. That must have got to Mohanlal's throat. I'm sure he'll be fine," said Varma. In Varma's Sholay, Ajay Devgan is playing Veeru, Mohit Ahlawat is Jai, Sushmita Sen will etch out the role of the widow and Amitabh Bachchan will play Gabbar Singh