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"Ek Thi Daayan is no ordinary horror film"
by Soumita Sengupta (February 4, 2013)
Kannan Iyer is a different breed of director, coming from a background that oddly enough blends engineering with cinema. He assisted Shekhar Kapur on Bandit Queen and also wrote Daud: Fun On The Run for Ram Gopal Varma. Iyer's long association with friend Vishal Bhardwaj and he finally culminated in Iyer deciding to direct Ek Thi Daayan, which is a joint venture of Ekta Kapoor and Bhardwaj. Iyer chats with Box Office India about his journey and other experiences
Not a regular filmmaker
Film is a hobby. I love films but I am also an engineer and was doing something else before films. I believe circumstances decide when a film will happen. And this was the correct time and film for me. Though I was not active in this industry for a while, I kept in touch with people in the trade and kept discussing films with them. One of them is Vishal Bhardwaj, with whom I have been friends for more than ten years.
Why Ek Thi Daayan?
Ek Thi Daayan is no ordinary horror film and the audience can expect a truly original film with mystery and great music by Vishal Bhardwaj. It's an entertaining supernatural thriller. Secondly, it's been almost a decade since a film on daayan has been made. That was another reason I took up this challenge.
Why not 3D?
We were very clear at the start that we didn't want to make our film in 3D. I personally don't like 3D because, according to me, 3D draws attention to the technology and reduces the experiment with actual filmmaking. Second, many people convert their films into 3D which… Nowadays, most horror films are made in 3D to enhance the fear factor but I don't feel that way.
Musical horror film
It is very difficult to integrate a thriller plot with songs and that's what we did. Vishal has provided some brilliant songs and Clinton Cerejo has done an amazing background score for the film. It's a supernatural musical thriller. Background music plays a very important role in any scary film.
On Casting
First and foremost, all the actors are absolutely brilliant, and one of them is daayan. But it is very difficult to identify which one is. We wanted absolutely image-free artistes. And all three daayan characters are totally different. Each one has a different body language and approach to acting and that's why I cast these three beautiful ladies in the film – Huma (Qureshi), Konkona (Sen Sharma) and Kalki (Koechlin). As for Emraan Hashmi… what can I say? He is a brilliant actor.
Does experience and education help in filmmaking?
Never mind an engineering degree, even an education in films doesn't help when you're actually making a film. You have to feel and live the story.
Credits
The story was written by Mukul Sharma (Konkona Sen Sharma's father) as a short story long ago. It was spotted by Vishal and he shared the idea with me to expand it to make a feature film. Later, Mukul and Vishal worked on the script and made it into a feature film. I loved the idea of a daayan thriller film and that's how I came on board as director.
by Soumita Sengupta (February 4, 2013)
Kannan Iyer is a different breed of director, coming from a background that oddly enough blends engineering with cinema. He assisted Shekhar Kapur on Bandit Queen and also wrote Daud: Fun On The Run for Ram Gopal Varma. Iyer's long association with friend Vishal Bhardwaj and he finally culminated in Iyer deciding to direct Ek Thi Daayan, which is a joint venture of Ekta Kapoor and Bhardwaj. Iyer chats with Box Office India about his journey and other experiences
Not a regular filmmaker
Film is a hobby. I love films but I am also an engineer and was doing something else before films. I believe circumstances decide when a film will happen. And this was the correct time and film for me. Though I was not active in this industry for a while, I kept in touch with people in the trade and kept discussing films with them. One of them is Vishal Bhardwaj, with whom I have been friends for more than ten years.
Why Ek Thi Daayan?
Ek Thi Daayan is no ordinary horror film and the audience can expect a truly original film with mystery and great music by Vishal Bhardwaj. It's an entertaining supernatural thriller. Secondly, it's been almost a decade since a film on daayan has been made. That was another reason I took up this challenge.
Why not 3D?
We were very clear at the start that we didn't want to make our film in 3D. I personally don't like 3D because, according to me, 3D draws attention to the technology and reduces the experiment with actual filmmaking. Second, many people convert their films into 3D which… Nowadays, most horror films are made in 3D to enhance the fear factor but I don't feel that way.
Musical horror film
It is very difficult to integrate a thriller plot with songs and that's what we did. Vishal has provided some brilliant songs and Clinton Cerejo has done an amazing background score for the film. It's a supernatural musical thriller. Background music plays a very important role in any scary film.
On Casting
First and foremost, all the actors are absolutely brilliant, and one of them is daayan. But it is very difficult to identify which one is. We wanted absolutely image-free artistes. And all three daayan characters are totally different. Each one has a different body language and approach to acting and that's why I cast these three beautiful ladies in the film – Huma (Qureshi), Konkona (Sen Sharma) and Kalki (Koechlin). As for Emraan Hashmi… what can I say? He is a brilliant actor.
Does experience and education help in filmmaking?
Never mind an engineering degree, even an education in films doesn't help when you're actually making a film. You have to feel and live the story.
Credits
The story was written by Mukul Sharma (Konkona Sen Sharma's father) as a short story long ago. It was spotted by Vishal and he shared the idea with me to expand it to make a feature film. Later, Mukul and Vishal worked on the script and made it into a feature film. I loved the idea of a daayan thriller film and that's how I came on board as director.
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