By Anjuri Nayar


From a single mother to a sex symbol, Vidya Balan has portrayed a range of characters on the big screen and says acting allows you to live another person’s world.
“I don’t think it (acting) is about proving oneself. It is about inhibiting another person’s world, one you have not been in before. I think as an actor, living a person’s life is exciting,” Vidya said in an interview.
Vidya was recently seen as a plump loud Punjabi woman with an unusual dressing sense in Rajkumar Gupta directed Ghanchakkar and the actress says she always finds a way to connect with her characters, and managed to do with this one too.
“There is also a part of them, which I connect with. My character in Ghanchakkar is not someone who I could identify with her initially, but the point of identification was that she was just happy with herself.
“I might not be happy with myself all the time, but I love people like that. You find that point of identification with the character,” she said.
Although at the box office, Ghanchakkar couldn’t do much, but the critics and audiences praised Vidya’s performance. She finds appreciation humbling.
“I feel humbled when people say that. I am just doing work, which I believe in,” said the actress who played central roles in Kahaani and The Dirty Picture, but was okay being second fiddle in Ghanchakkar.
“In Ghanchakkar, Sanju (Emraan Hashmi) was the central character. I was not the protagonist. I was ok with it as I love the character. I don’t have set notions and don’t take on that kind of pressure. My only dream was to be an actor and I am living my dream to the fullest,” she said.
Vidya is married to Siddharth Roy Kapur, managing director of Studios, Disney UTV, but unlike her husband, she does not want to enter production business. “I don’t want to start producing films. I am very greedy about being an actor and I always have a producer at home,” she said.
What about creative satisfaction? “After The Dirty Picture I thought I had done everything that needed to be done. But I was even taken aback when Rajkumar Gupta came to me with Ghanchakkar. I felt grateful to him that he could think of me in this diametrically opposite character. But he was also making a diametrically opposite film.”
Now Vidya will be seen with Farhan Akhtar in Shaadi Ke Side Effects. – IANS


Guru Smaran vouches for
different narrative styles

By Haricharan Pudipeddi


Thanks to the box-office success of a few offbeat Tamil films in the recent past, audiences have become more receptive than before towards unusual narrative styles, feels techie-turned-filmmaker Guru Smaran and adds that producers have become flexible too.
Guru’s debut Tamil dark-comedy Kanneer Anjali, which has garnered a lot of attention from a private screening, boasts an abnormal narrative style. “I believe audiences have always been open to different styles of narration. Lately, they seem to be more welcoming because of an increase in the number of films with out-of-the-box narrative approach,” Guru said.
Some of the recent successful Tamil films with quirky storyline that clicked include Pizza, Soodhu Kavvum, Neram and Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom.
He, however, added: “Audiences like to be spoon-fed occasionally because not everybody can follow new style of recitation.”
Guru uploaded his film on YouTube barely months after he made it.
Are you happy with the feedback?
“By and large everybody liked it. Some complained about the explicit language used in the film. I didn’t mind because I made the film for young male adults. Moreover, it’s a dark comedy and the language here defines the spirit of the film,” said Guru.
Made on a budget of Rs.4.75 lakh, Kanneer Anjali took nearly three years to be completed.
 “The first draft nearly took me two years and then I had to rewrite it. In the process, I learned that for any wannabe filmmaker it is very important to keep his or her first film simple. The more you complicate the script, the longer it takes to execute it,” he added.
Guru’s Kanneer Anjali is the story of two friends on a road trip to pay homage to a friend they have recently lost.
He wants to incorporate some changes in the script, based on the feedback from the screening. So his immediate goal is to find a producer to help him re-shoot Kanneer Anjali.
“I’m reworking on the script based on the feedback from the private screening. I think the learning has been immense from the feedback. I’m trying to find a producer who could back my film,” he said. Producers are more open to fresh stories these days.
“Producers now are very open than before. They are more approachable and I think we are in a very good time. The scenario has changed in the last few years for the better,” he said. But he admits that making a good film is an uphill task.
“Anyone can make a film, today, but not a good film. A bad film, even on digital platform, will only earn the wrath of the netizens,” added Guru.
Kanneer Anjali mostly features first timers, and Guru believes working with a team you know is always resourceful.
“I worked with people I knew because I feel having a team is good for a debutant director. Even though newcomers might not be fast learners, their presence is good because you share a personal rapport with them and it eventually helps overcome shortcomings,” he added.


Not directing Kahaani 2,
clarifies Kundan Shah

By Subhash K Jha


For the director of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, one of the most brilliant social satires of Indian cinema, it comes as an embarrassing shock to be accused of muscling into Sujoy Ghosh’s territory to direct the sequel to Kahaani 2. He denies all the rumours.
“Why would I want to make Kahaani 2? That’s Sujoy Ghosh’s domain,” said Kundan Shah.
“I think he did a brilliant job in Kahaani. The way he recreated the bustle and tension of Kolkata was amazing. I don’t think any other director could do justice to the Kahaani brand,” he added.
Made on a budget of Rs8 crore, Kahaani, centred around Vidya Balan’s character, did a business of Rs.75 crore at the ticket window.
Explaining how he became embroiled in the unsavoury controversy, Shah said: “I went to producer Jayanti Gada with a woman-oriented subject. It was his idea to name it Kahaani 2 as he says the rights and title are with him. But I am not comfortable with this at all.
“Why should I claim any creative right over the Kahaani franchise? It’s Sujoy’s baby. I’d like the producers to patch up with Sujoy and make Kahaani 2, Kahaani 3, etc with Sujoy. I’d like to be left out of this.”
Describing his next film as political satire, Shah revealed that just like his first film, there is a dead body in this one. “I know Satish Shah’s corpse act in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is still remembered. But what can I do if a dead body popped up in this one too?”
While Shah clams up on more information on his new film, one learns it is titled Masquerade, which he was supposed to make with Mallika Sherawat in the lead.
But now the producers will cast a new girl in the lead. Reacting to reports suggesting that Shah would take off the Kahaani legacy, Ghosh said: “No one can make Kahaani 2 without my consent. I will direct a sequel that would hopefully respect and honour the love that people showed to Kahaani. I am here only to make films and not to defend my creation against poaching.”
He is not worried about Kahaani being taken away. “It’s mine. Why should I react to some baseless report claiming someone else is making Kahaani 2? The only thing that bothers me is that my mother in Kolkata reads such stuff and gets upset. She will get used to it.” — IANS