Apart from the two biggies — Dil Bole Hadippa! and Wanted — a small film called Blue Oranges released at the theatres last Friday. The director happens to be a Bengali and that was reason enough for t2 to catch up with the debutant Rajesh Ganguly...

Before Blue Oranges, you have been involved with international productions like The Darjeeling Ltd and The Cheetah Girls. How did that happen?

When I was in Calcutta, I had nothing to do with filmmaking at all. In 2002, I came over to Mumbai to become a director. I started work with some corporate films. Then I joined production work to get myself associated with feature films. And that’s when I joined Khussro Films in 2005 as their assistant transport manager for their international films. That’s how The Darjeeling Ltd and The Cheetah Girls happened. Thereafter I gave the script of Blue Oranges to my Khussro Films producer. He liked it and we went ahead with the project.

Why have you called your film Blue Oranges?

Because blue oranges don’t exist in reality. The small miracles in life that we encounter time and again, I am calling them blue oranges. Because miracles always exist in the realms of one’s mind, just like blue oranges. Of course, it’s also incorporated in the film. In the form of a book, which has bearings on the film.

Given it’s your first film, why make a thriller, which is quite a niche genre in India?

The story that came to my mind was a whodunnit, a murder mystery... I always feel that when it’s a smallish film, and in my case a very small film, it’s easier to get the audience’s attention if there’s a hook to it. That was one of the guiding forces, I guess.

Any apprehensions of releasing your film with Hadippa and Wanted?

Huge apprehensions, actually! I have only been having sleepless nights over the release. Right now, the film has released only in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore. Next week, we will move into the other centres, once the two biggies are one week old. We are getting around 11 theatres in Mumbai, mostly from the PVR chain. If the film appeals to the audience, the size of the release is good enough to make a mark as a small film. At the end of the day, it’s the strength of the film... big, small really doesn’t matter. I am banking on word of mouth publicity. I know I don’t have stars to draw people out of their homes and into the theatres.

Despite not having stars you have an interesting ensemble of cast including Rajit Kapoor, Rati Agnihotri and Harsh Chhaya...

It was a very pleasant experience. All of them were very eager to do the film right from the script level and they all put their best foot forward. Everyone knew their lines which was a big thing for me. We had a very tight schedule — a total of 24 shooting days and we managed to wrap it up in 32 days. And to achieve that the cast and crew had to be in sync, which was exactly the case.

Pratim D. Gupta