He shot into the spotlight with his 2013 film Jolly LLB, a scathing look at India’s judicial system tinged with humour. This weekend, Subhash Kapoor is here with Guddu Rangeela, a satirical tale about a kidnapping gone wrong. A t2 chat with the man who is the chosen one to direct the third Munna Bhai film....

You are known for your quirky scripts and Guddu Rangeela seems to be in that zone too. How did the story of the film develop?

 

I wrote this script at the time I was directing my debut film Phas Gaya Re Obama, which released in 2010. I have been a journalist, like you, earlier and UP and Haryana are the places I have travelled a lot in. So, I wanted to do something in that milieu and I wanted it to be very authentic. I wanted my characters to come out of that world. I always had this very loose sort of picture of these two orchestra singers based out of Haryana. And then, I started developing that idea and looking for socio-political issues in that area.

My films, whether it is Phas Gaya Re Obama or Jolly LLB, have an ideological subtext… in Obama it was recession, while in Jolly it was the judiciary. Once I developed the script, I automatically started working on issues like khap panchayat and honour killing. However, that’s only the backdrop of Guddu Rangeela… it’s essentially a story of two lovable losers and the adventures they embark on.

From the milieu to the script to the characters… what was the toughest bit to bring to screen?

Nothing really. Once I grasped the subject, studied the milieu and knew my characters, it was quite a smooth ride. Also, because people knew me as the maker of Jolly LLB, a film that was appreciated largely, things came to me a little easier. I got the cast I wanted. 

Amit Sadh, who plays Guddu, has told us that Guddu Rangeela belongs to the ‘Subhash Kapoor genre’. It must be flattering being classed in a genre of your own after just three films?

(Laughs) I don’t take it seriously… I am sure Amit said it casually. I have just made a couple of films and people have to have a great body of work before one can even remotely attribute something like this to them. I don’t believe in it at all. 

Anurag Kashyap and Tigmanshu Dhulia have set many of their films in the terrain and texture that Guddu Rangeela is set in. How have you explored this milieu differently?

There is one similarity between all of us — whether it is Anurag or Tishu (Tigmanshu) or Navdeep (Singh) who has done it with NH10 or even Rajkumar Gupta — and that is that we all grew up up north. Most of us are from Delhi or UP, and when we started making films, we were all comfortable telling the stories of the world we know very well. I end up basing all my films in the Haryana-UP belt because that’s the area where I know the characters and the lingo well. 

I must add that what attracts me to this belt and which I have probably done a little differently from all the filmmakers I have just mentioned, is the humour. I think Haryanvis have the best sense of humour and you will find that in all my films, particularly in Guddu Rangeela. I deal with socio-political issues, but not with a great deal of seriousness… I deal with them with a tinge of humour and a lot of satire.

I won’t be able to make a film in London because I don’t know London. For me, it’s the experience and the confidence of knowing a place like the back of my hand that helps me tell my stories effectively. 

What was more exciting as a filmmaker — going back to the chemistry you shared with Arshad Warsi in Jolly LLB or exploring a new dynamic with Amit Sadh?

Arshad and I shared a great equation while working on a film that received a lot of appreciation, including two National Awards (Best Feature Film in Hindi and Best Supporting Actor for Saurabh Shukla). I have a great deal of confidence in Arshad the actor… I know he will deliver with every take. There are many things that are left unspoken between us on set because I know that Arshad knows what I want from him as an actor. 
With Amit, it was definitely more exciting because he’s relatively new in the industry and he brings in a lot of freshness. He was automatically the first choice for me because I realised that he’s half-Guddu in his real life. With him, I just needed to work on the lingo and the body language… for the rest of it, he was already the character even before he began shooting. 

Is there a recent film that you liked and went, ‘wish I had made this one’…

When I saw the trailer of Tanu Weds Manu Returns, I absolutely loved it, but didn’t have Aanand (L. Rai, the director’s) number. I found it out and called him. Not just me… the majority of Bollywood functions this way… if we like something, we always make it a point to call and encourage each other. I am the kind who gets excited by trailers and songs.

All your films have had a tinge of politics, but being a former political journalist will we ever see you make an out-and-out political film?

Absolutely, absolutely! There’s something I am working on. I can’t talk much in details right now, but a solid political film is something I have been dying to make for a long time. After Guddu Rangeela, we go on to Jolly LLB 2… so hopefully, after that I will make a hardcore political film. It’s a story I am itching to tell. 

You are also slated to direct Munna Bhai Chale Delhi…

Yes, I am on board and we have done some initial work. It all depends on when Sanjay Dutt comes out (of jail where he is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence). For anything more, you will have to ask the film’s producers Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani. I am not authorised to say much. 

 

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