Dilli-6: Ready for editing!

Dil tumhara, Dilli bhi tumhara!

By: Subhash K Jha

Date: 2008-07-03

Mumbai:

Over to you, darling: Rakeysh Mehra with wife Bharathi

The creative energy flowing under Rakeysh Mehra's directorial vision is his wife Bharathi who has edited both Aks and Rang De Basanti, and has
just begun to edit Rakeysh's third film Dilli 6.

I surrender...

Rakeysh has surrendered the material to his wife. "I'm dying to see what I've done in Dilli 6. I haven't entered the editing studio yet. Since she's doing the editing, she first needs to be happy with my work. I need to let her do her work. It's the same with any other technician on board. I can't sit on Rahman's head when he's composing a song.

Or I can't instruct Binod Pradhan on the lighting when he's shooting. To me, editing is the purest artform in cinema. It's the only vocation that's truly related to cinema.

Cinematography originates in photography and painting. Screenplay writing originates from plays, stories and literature. Acting has its roots in folk and theatre. Direction is also derivative. Film editing is the only original art form. It's the only vocation born for and out of cinema. So I'd rather let it be done by someone who knows her job."

Rakeysh Mehra believes screenwriting and editing are the backbones of a movie. "The way scenes are cut, determines the film. I don't know her job better than her. So I let Bharathi take care of the material."

Rakeysh is far from fatigued. "Am I tired? Tiredness is a state of mind. But yes, I did need a break. So I'm writing; and that, for me, is a break from direction. While directing, I was reaching the sets every day at 8 am and leaving at 10 pm. Writing requires a different discipline. It requires a different energy. I'm already writing my next film."

Casting can wait

Whom will he cast now? "I never think of whom to cast while writing. The characters get cast on their own. The script chooses the actor. The one I'm writing now needn't be the one that I'll direct next. What one makes, depend on so many factors including the availability of the actors that I want. Yes, I do have a wish-list for my next film.

But one has to have options. Suppose I don't get A R Rahman for the music, I might go with Vangelis. And it'd become a totally different sur. And if it's Om Puri instead of Amitji, it's a different film."