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'I don't know how they dared to send Krrish for a National Award. It was a horrible film!'
'Films like Dabangg and Bang Bang are trash films.'
'Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram Leela was so bad; only the music was good.'
Straight talk from Garm Hava director M S Sathyu.
M S Sathyu, 84, is not used to the sudden media attention his 1973 release Garm Hava is getting.
His cell phone is constantly ringing, and he's bombarded with requests for interviews.
Sathyu, who lives in Bangalore, is currently staying in his cozy Mumbai flat -- located in the posh Juhu area -- to promote Garm Hava, which has been re-released on November 14 after being digitally restored.
"In the last two days, I have been getting so many calls from media people... what makes you do that? My movie is 40 years old. Why has it become so important for the media?" he asks me.
In his hour-long interview, Sathyu talks to Patcy N about his film, and also talks about the movies made today.
You saw the movie again after 40 years. What was going on in your mind? Would you have made it differently today?
The technology has changed; the visual and sound quality has been revolutionised. When we made the film, all this was not available. Even if it was available, I don't know whether we would have had the money to make use of it.
Today there is digital technology; it was very exciting to see my own film with that changed look.
I feel nostalgic; there are so many things one experiences during the making of a film. You think of so many things you failed to achieve.
When I see it now I say, oh, what a mistake I have made, I could have improved that. But one should not be overwhelmed by one's own work.
There were some constraints then. Like, there is a riot scene in the movie where we showed very few people. We created a little skirmish and there was a fire sequence. We did not have the means to create a real fire. In the dialogue we say the whole city is burning but we couldn't visually show it. That was perhaps a constraint of money and manpower.
Today, with the technology you can artificially create that effect ---you really don't have to burn anything.
Did you think when you made this film that it would reach such heights?
Frankly speaking, 40 years ago we never thought this film would mean something. Somehow, it has sustained itself. It has become a film classic in India.
I only wanted to make a good film as best I could.
Do you watch movies that are made today?
I was on the jury for the National Awards so I had to watch movies in various languages.
I saw The Lunchbox. Ship Of Theseus was a good film. I saw Kai Po Che.
What do you think of the films being made today?
There is some bad stuff and good stuff, but the good stuff is very few. They make bad films effortlessly and put lots of money into it.
This money business is hype. In three days they say we collected Rs 100 crore. No film can collect that much. It's impossible.
There are good filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Vishal Bhardwaj... There are some younger directors too who are very good.
Otherwise, there are films like Dabangg and Bang Bang -- these are trash films.
They just want to claim that they are making a hundred crore film. Why don't the entertainment tax people question them?
If you are stating officially that you have made Rs 100 crore, how much did you pay as entertainment tax?
If you are saying you made Rs 100 crore, have you paid Rs 50 crore to the government? They should be fined.
For Chennai Express, they said they collected Rs 300 crore. I went for an afternoon show in Bangalore, there were 50 to 60 people in a theatre of 1,000 capacity in the first week of its release. And they are claiming it's playing to packed houses! It was a bad film. The actors were so bad.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram Leela was so bad. Only the music was good. Deepika Padukone is a good looking girl but no acting talent.
In recent times who do you think are good actors?
Vidya Balan, Richa Chadda, Anushka Sharma and Nimrit Kaur.
Among the men, Irrfan is a good actor but he mumbles his dialogues and is repetitive.
Aamir Khan is a good actor. He is very sensitive. I liked his performance in Lagaan, although (director) Ashutosh Gowariker has a simple solution for everything. The whole problem of taxation was decided on the cricket field.
He did the same thing in Swades. The electricity problem was solved by putting a little tank, a little water and water trickled down. He put in a little pump and bulbs were burning.
I mean a person who comes from NASA, will he go to Chor Bazar (a flea market in South Mumbai) and buy a generator? He could have thought of an alternative system to produce electricity like how satellites have solar electricity and things like that.
How much water can you store in a small tank? And how long can you produce electricity even for one zero volt bulb? Stupid film!
Do you watch films like Dabangg?
No. But I happened to see one of Hrithik Roshan's films, Krrish, that came up for the National Award. I don't know how they dared to send it for a National Award. It was a horrible film.
There is a rule that every film should be seen fully, even if it is bad. You can make out a film is bad within the first half an hour. So it should be rejected right then. But somebody went to court and filed a case saying the jury must see the whole film and then decide and the court passed the rule.
I must have seen 160 films in one month. Since I was in the Eastern Panel I had to watch all the films made in the East of India like Assam and Bengal. But once all the films from all the zones where shortlisted, I was put in the central panel and I had to watch all the shortlisted films.
There are so many things wrong with the rules. They say adapted screenplay'. How many have read the original book? Most of them have not read it so how do you know how it is adapted?
Anant Murthy wrote a story called Prakruti, which was made into a film. That film got an award for best adaptation. I was the only member on the jury who had read the book. And I knew it was well done. But how do you talk about other languages?
'Films like Dabangg and Bang Bang are trash films.'
'Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram Leela was so bad; only the music was good.'
Straight talk from Garm Hava director M S Sathyu.
M S Sathyu, 84, is not used to the sudden media attention his 1973 release Garm Hava is getting.
His cell phone is constantly ringing, and he's bombarded with requests for interviews.
Sathyu, who lives in Bangalore, is currently staying in his cozy Mumbai flat -- located in the posh Juhu area -- to promote Garm Hava, which has been re-released on November 14 after being digitally restored.
"In the last two days, I have been getting so many calls from media people... what makes you do that? My movie is 40 years old. Why has it become so important for the media?" he asks me.
In his hour-long interview, Sathyu talks to Patcy N about his film, and also talks about the movies made today.
You saw the movie again after 40 years. What was going on in your mind? Would you have made it differently today?
The technology has changed; the visual and sound quality has been revolutionised. When we made the film, all this was not available. Even if it was available, I don't know whether we would have had the money to make use of it.
Today there is digital technology; it was very exciting to see my own film with that changed look.
I feel nostalgic; there are so many things one experiences during the making of a film. You think of so many things you failed to achieve.
When I see it now I say, oh, what a mistake I have made, I could have improved that. But one should not be overwhelmed by one's own work.
There were some constraints then. Like, there is a riot scene in the movie where we showed very few people. We created a little skirmish and there was a fire sequence. We did not have the means to create a real fire. In the dialogue we say the whole city is burning but we couldn't visually show it. That was perhaps a constraint of money and manpower.
Today, with the technology you can artificially create that effect ---you really don't have to burn anything.
Did you think when you made this film that it would reach such heights?
Frankly speaking, 40 years ago we never thought this film would mean something. Somehow, it has sustained itself. It has become a film classic in India.
I only wanted to make a good film as best I could.
Do you watch movies that are made today?
I was on the jury for the National Awards so I had to watch movies in various languages.
I saw The Lunchbox. Ship Of Theseus was a good film. I saw Kai Po Che.
What do you think of the films being made today?
There is some bad stuff and good stuff, but the good stuff is very few. They make bad films effortlessly and put lots of money into it.
This money business is hype. In three days they say we collected Rs 100 crore. No film can collect that much. It's impossible.
There are good filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Vishal Bhardwaj... There are some younger directors too who are very good.
Otherwise, there are films like Dabangg and Bang Bang -- these are trash films.
They just want to claim that they are making a hundred crore film. Why don't the entertainment tax people question them?
If you are stating officially that you have made Rs 100 crore, how much did you pay as entertainment tax?
If you are saying you made Rs 100 crore, have you paid Rs 50 crore to the government? They should be fined.
For Chennai Express, they said they collected Rs 300 crore. I went for an afternoon show in Bangalore, there were 50 to 60 people in a theatre of 1,000 capacity in the first week of its release. And they are claiming it's playing to packed houses! It was a bad film. The actors were so bad.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram Leela was so bad. Only the music was good. Deepika Padukone is a good looking girl but no acting talent.
In recent times who do you think are good actors?
Vidya Balan, Richa Chadda, Anushka Sharma and Nimrit Kaur.
Among the men, Irrfan is a good actor but he mumbles his dialogues and is repetitive.
Aamir Khan is a good actor. He is very sensitive. I liked his performance in Lagaan, although (director) Ashutosh Gowariker has a simple solution for everything. The whole problem of taxation was decided on the cricket field.
He did the same thing in Swades. The electricity problem was solved by putting a little tank, a little water and water trickled down. He put in a little pump and bulbs were burning.
I mean a person who comes from NASA, will he go to Chor Bazar (a flea market in South Mumbai) and buy a generator? He could have thought of an alternative system to produce electricity like how satellites have solar electricity and things like that.
How much water can you store in a small tank? And how long can you produce electricity even for one zero volt bulb? Stupid film!
Do you watch films like Dabangg?
No. But I happened to see one of Hrithik Roshan's films, Krrish, that came up for the National Award. I don't know how they dared to send it for a National Award. It was a horrible film.
There is a rule that every film should be seen fully, even if it is bad. You can make out a film is bad within the first half an hour. So it should be rejected right then. But somebody went to court and filed a case saying the jury must see the whole film and then decide and the court passed the rule.
I must have seen 160 films in one month. Since I was in the Eastern Panel I had to watch all the films made in the East of India like Assam and Bengal. But once all the films from all the zones where shortlisted, I was put in the central panel and I had to watch all the shortlisted films.
There are so many things wrong with the rules. They say adapted screenplay'. How many have read the original book? Most of them have not read it so how do you know how it is adapted?
Anant Murthy wrote a story called Prakruti, which was made into a film. That film got an award for best adaptation. I was the only member on the jury who had read the book. And I knew it was well done. But how do you talk about other languages?
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