Not bothered abt playing by d rules: Abhishek K

Long before Rock On! happened, filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor acted in a couple of films. He made his directorial debut with Aryan which did not make it big at the BO. But destiny took a different turn for Abhishek after Rock On!. He attributes this to his gut feeling and the conviction to follow his heart. Now, he's working on another project, which is an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's Three Mistakes of My Life.

What made you pick the book to base your film on?

The book has romance, humour, entertainment. But I am not an opportunist and don't make a film thinking of only the commercial point of view. The book has more cinematic potential than any of Chetan's other books. And the fact that the book was based in Gujarat also meant a new ambience and a new story that filmmakers had not explored before. I have changed almost 50 per cent of what is written for the film ( Kaipo Che).

The film is set in Gujarat...

See, I don't want to sound like I am promoting tourism in Gujarat, but the state is so rich historically. And there are enough stories which have been done on North Indian and Punjabi culture. Gujarat is no less passionate as a state. There are enough stories hidden somewhere in the remote areas of Gujarat. I don't care about industry trends and what works in films! The Gujarati spirit, the kind of patience I see in people working in this tremendous heat, is something that needs to be applauded. The government here is helpful unlike other cities where for small things we would have to move from one department to another.

Do you feel that you are taking a risk with a fresh cast in the film? The percentage of TV actors making it big in films is very low.

Farhan (Akhtar) was completely new to acting when he did Rock On!. It's not about TV or films - it's about the conviction that you can make a person act. Sushant (Singh Rajput) has great fan following while Rajkumar (Yadav) is a very talented actor. Star kids make their Bollywood debut without any training, at least I have auditioned my cast.

People will have great expectations from you after Rock On!...

A lot of people are cynical about filmmakers trying new subjects. When I was an actor, I felt powerless and dependent on producers and had to act according to the market forces. Even when I was making Rock On!, people said, 'Oh so now you will make a film on music?' It is easy to make a typical Bollywood film with an item number and foreign locales, but today if you take that out from a film, do you feel those films have good plots? As filmmakers, our job is to go with our conviction.

Do you feel that movies that make 100 crore are doing so only because of star power and good marketing?

Movies that have raked in 100 crore at the BO could have perhaps made 250 crore, had their scripts and plots been stronger. Unfortunately in Bollywood today, people are not interested in the shelf life of a film. They are interested in paying a scriptwriter only if there is a big star in the film, and when the film works they don't want to pay the scriptwriter enough saying that it is the star that makes the film.

So are you happy that you are able to make films with conviction?

Yes. I am not bothered about playing by the rules of the game. But tomorrow if my film does not work and I am in the dumps, it will not bother me.