Pix by Gajanan Dudhalkar

How do you stick a label on director Ketan Mehta? Was he a ‘multiplex movie’ director before the term — or even multiplexes — was even invented? Is he an old-style ‘art house’ moviemaker who has somehow strayed into ‘commercial’ territory, a dinosaur from an earlier era?

Perhaps the secret of his celluloid success — for over three decades — is that he combines a cracking good story and an underlying message. His latest film Rang Rasiya on the artist Raja Ravi Varma pulls off the same feat once again.

(From top) Nandana Sen and Randeep Hooda in a moment from Mehta’s soon to be released film, Rang Rasiya; Aamir Khan and Toby Stephens in The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey

“I always make films to open a debate and raise pertinent questions concerning our society. And if there is a change because of a film, I am extremely happy,” says 57-year-old Mehta, sitting back comfortably in the office of his production company, Maya Movies in suburban Mumbai.

In the bilingual Rang Rasiya (Colours of Passion in English), he delves into the history books and Ravi Varma’s colourful life. But, beneath the surface, the movie is also about creative freedom. “The message is that you cannot curb an artist for expressing his creativity,” he says.

Rang Rasiya, scheduled to release in the first week of February, has actor Randeep Hooda playing Raja Ravi Varma and Nandana Sen as his muse, Sugandha. The film revolves around a case filed against the artist for promoting obscenity and how he finally triumphed.

But Mehta’s clear that the historical tale has a more modern parallel message. “The social ostracism which Ravi Varma faced a century ago for giving shape to mythological figures, is still faced by artists like M.F. Husain now,” he says.

Making a film on Ravi Varma has been at the back of Mehta’s mind ever since his student days at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune in 1973. The idea re-surfaced during his last film The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey in 2007. This time he put his plans into action, bought the rights to the novel on Raja Ravi Varma (by Marathi author Ranjit Desai) and started shooting in August 2007.

Shah Rukh Khan in a still from Maya Memsaab

Rang Rasiya was unlike his last film in more ways than one. The movie’s been made on a relatively low budget — compared to The Rising — of Rs 12 crore. The film has been produced by his actress-wife Deepa Sahi and Anand Mahendroo.

Inevitably, Rang Rasiya required a mountain of research and it took him on journeys across the country. Mehta started by reading the novel and getting it adapted. Then, he travelled to museums and also studied archival material and other books on the painter. Large chunks of the film were shot in places like Kerala, Baroda, Varanasi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Pune, places where Ravi Varma lived or visited. Mehta even studied the machinery used by Ravi Varma for printing and his sketches and drawings that are archived in various museums.

Mehta has already won over critics and audiences at international festivals like the 52nd London Film Festival in October where Colours of Passion had its first world premiere. Then, it travelled to the MIACC (Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council) Film Festival, in New York in November. It will also be showcased at the upcoming Galle Film Festival in Sri Lanka in March.

Mehta’s actress wife Deepa Sahi is currently making a debut as a director under the Maya Entertainment banner; (Above) Smita Patil starred in Mirch Masala, a film which dealt with an uprising by a group of women against subedars

So is he optimistic about the India release? “Every film is an adventure to me and this film is a very personal one. With this film, I want to open a debate on artistic freedom. If it creates controversies, so be it,” he says forcefully.

The director’s ability to extract the best from his actors is well-known in the film industry. In Rang Rasiya, he chose Hooda, a relative newcomer to play the lead protagonist. “He is talented and very malleable,” he says. Randeep also had to gain weight to get a more mature look.

Mehta has always been fascinated by historical movies. Though his last film The Rising, based on sepoy Mangal Pandey didn’t do well at the box office, it hasn’t deterred him from starting work on two more. The first is on the warrior-queen Rani Laxmibai and the second on the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

Both the films are part of the The Rising trilogy. “The shooting for Rani Laxmibai will start by end 2009 and I am busy scripting both the films,” he says. He’s hoping that Aishwarya Rai will play the warrior-queen.

The director has also branched out in other directions in recent years. There’s the animated version Ramayana –The Epic coming up from his computer animation and visual effects company, Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC), which he set up in 2001. Today, the academy offers training courses in 3D animation, digital film production, post-production and visual effects for television and feature films.

A still from Aar Ya Par; (Above) Paresh Rawal played the role of Vallabhbhai Patel in Sardar; (Below) Mehta’s debut film Bhavni Bhavai was inspired by a traditional form of Gujarati folk theatre

Then, there’s Maya Entertainment Ltd (MEL), a visual effects and animation company that Mehta set up in 1996 along with wife Deepa, which has also been a trendsetter of sorts. It developed animated content for US TV series Cosmic Quantum Ray and also for the BBC. Then, it created Boomdi, an animated music video, and even a computer game based on the hit television show Desperate Housewives. Besides that it has also done graphics and animation for Indian television channels.

Director Sudhir Mishra, who says he considers Mehta an elder brother and friend, points to Mehta’s control over the filmmaking technique as his biggest USP. “His films have a very earthy feel. Of all his films, I love his debut film Bhavni Bhavai, which I saw a dozen times. It is a wonderful adaptation of folk idiom into cinema.” Mishra is directing two films for Mehta — Baraat and Mehrunissa’s Lovers — which are at the scripting stage.

Mehta too has fond memories of Bhavni Bhavai, which was made in Gujarati. “It was on a shoe-string budget of Rs 3.5 lakhs. And some of the industry’s best talents like Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil worked in the movie — for peanuts,” he says. The story was inspired by a Bhavai folktale (a traditional form of Gujarati folk theatre).

Theatre was Mehta’s first love and he recalls accompanying his father as a child to watch Gujarati folk theatre. He became an active member of Dishantar, a theatre group formed by actor Om Shivpuri in Delhi. Mehta was born in Navsari, Gujarat. He studied economics at Delhi’s St Stephen’s College before going to FTII, Pune. Before his first film, Mehta made several documentaries like Coolies at Bombay Central (1975), Experience India (1977) and Wat Tamari (1977).

But it was his Mirch Masala, about an uprising by a group of women against subedars (armed tax collectors), which earned the Best Film award at the Hawaii International Film Festival in 1986.

Actress Dipti Naval who worked with Mehta in Holi (1984) and Mirch Masala (1985) admires his thorough knowledge of the craft of filmmaking. She says: “When he narrated Mirch Masala, he explained every scene to me vividly. He has a wonderful ear for sounds and in Mirch Masala he cleverly used the banging of the thali as a sign of rebellion by village women.”

After Mirch Masala, Mehta made films like Pehla Kadam, Hero Hiralal, Sardar, Maya Memsaab and Oh! Darling Yeh Hai India. In between films, Mehta also shifted to television and made serials like Captain Vyom for Doordarshan (2000), Pradhan Mantri (2001) and Time Bomb for Zee TV (2005).

But he never strayed from his determination to deliver a social message. “In the ’70s, we had this drive to bring about a change in society through our meaningful work. That spirit is absent today,” he says regretfully.

So how has he evolved as a filmmaker? “I see myself as an agent of change and make films that are relevant to the times. What has transformed is the technique as I use a lot of visual effects nowadays,” he says.

Though Mehta has won many national and international awards, he keeps a low profile. And despite all the adulation, he remains a workaholic at heart. Says his wife Deepa: “He’s constantly coming up with newer ideas even at home. Even on holidays, he thinks mostly about cinema.” His favourite filmmakers include Charlie Chaplin, Jean-Luc Godard, Vittorio De Sica, Ritwik Ghatak and Satyajit Ray.

Deepa managed Maya Entertainment till 2001. “I was reading more management books than thinking about my film career,” she says. Now, she’s directing her first movie under the Maya Entertainment banner.

When he’s not busy shooting, Mehta likes to read. “I am a bookworm and my choices include both fiction and non-fiction. I like to be aware of what’s happening around me,” he says.

Mehta’s day starts early with a work-out at the gym. He’s not hands-on in his company, but he’s regularly updated about what’s happening. As a director he’s extremely professional. Says Deepa: “When we went for the outdoor location for Maya Memsaab, we travelled in separate compartments. And on the set, the relationship was more of an actor and a director rather than a husband and a wife.”

Mehta is happy that the demarcation between realistic and parallel cinema is blurring. He wants to promote new directors and says, “We have talented actors and directors but what we lack today is the guts to deviate from the routine.” But he’s one filmmaker who has always had the courage of his convictions and made the movies that he wanted to make.