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A 300-strong audience at ITC Rajputana Jaipur was treated to something on Sunday evening that even Calcutta — where Kahaani was born — was denied. We didn’t know, for instance, that Vidya Balan would break into a little jig before every scene, that Parambrata Chattopadhyay (Rana) would play snake charmer to Vidya’s Nagina in Monalisa Guest House, or that Vidya would give Sujoy a back massage in between shots!
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| (From From top) Sundeep Bhutoria of Prabha Khaitan Foundation; Mita Kapur, Arindam Sil, Saswata Chatterjee and Sujoy Ghosh at ITC Rajputana in Jaipur on Sunday |
The Making of Kahaani, 20 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, set the tone for a free-wheeling chat with Kahaani maker Sujoy Ghosh, hosted by Prabha Khaitan Foundation and steered by Mita Kapur of Siyahi, a Jaipur-based literary consultancy firm. Also present were Bob Biswas (also known as Saswata Chatterjee!) and Kahaani’s executive producer Arindam Sil, who recalled “those 52 manic days when the team had taken over Calcutta”.
t2 brings you excerpts from the chat with Sujoy.
On what he was eating while making Kahaani…
Jalebi, hing kachori and chilli chicken! Lots and lots of it!
The right balance of cinematography, editing, plotline and screenplay in Kahaani...
I just concentrated on my work. It all came from excellent teamwork and I did not interfere in anyone else’s job. It’s very important for a filmmaker to realise that if you’ve recruited a team who you trust with certain responsibilities, you have to let them be. That’s what I did. I told Setu (cinematographer) or Vidya or Arindam what I wanted and then I let it be. My job was to manage and make the best of the conditions — whether we were shooting at the Metro station or in the dark lanes of Kumartuli. That’s probably why it worked. In fact the National Data Centre you see in the film was shot at Jadavpur University. When they scouted this location out for me I was like, ‘Arre, JU leke main kya karunga?!’ I guess you have to also know the potential of a location. If I did everything myself, the film wouldn’t have risen beyond a certain level. We kept utilising everything we could within a limited budget and limited time.
Taking a risk with a small-budget, woman-centric film…
I didn’t make Kahaani to prove a point. That’s what a lot of people think but I never made Kahaani to make a woman-centric film. I did the film because I believed in the story and I needed to tell it. My job as a filmmaker is to tell a story and my benchmark is my grandmother. I have to beat her in telling a story.... I go with whatever excites us. There is this invisible law book in Hindi cinema. For a movie to be a hit, it has to fit into rule A, B, C, D and so on. Going by that, Kahaani didn’t fit in but all my actors and crew were very convinced about the storyline.
The Calcutta-isation of Vidya to Bidya…
It actually came from my wife’s name. Her name is Vaishali and everyone in Calcutta calls her ‘Boishali’. Vidya, too, had told me that ‘everyone in Calcutta calls me Bidya not Vidya.’ So I thought that was a great idea and we could use it here. When I write, I keep taking these little things from life. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
If Vidya was actually pushed onto the Metro rail tracks…
The idea that Apu (Saswata) and I discussed but Vidya didn’t know was that we wanted her to be a bit uncomfortable about him when he’s talking to her. So at the Metro station, he kept going very close to her and she kept walking backwards where there was this weighing machine which she could not see but I could. Before she could hit it, topple and fall onto the tracks we caught her!
How Bob Biswas was so scary…
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| Vidya Balan during Kahaani’s shoot in Calcutta |
Bob Biswas as a character was more human than the rest of the characters put together. He had a job he wasn’t good at. He was fat, he couldn’t walk up the stairs. He had typical human traits that made him unique because he was so common. He perhaps doesn’t make much money, maybe doesn’t have a family. If Bob came for you, you wouldn’t know how to identify a Bob. Anyone could be a Bob out there. That was a tremendous thing Apu brought to the character. He proved that screen time is not important to show what you are capable of. If you’re a good actor you can show it in a minute and there are those who can’t make an impact even in three hours. I won’t take names or else an MMS of my face would appear on Bob’s phone!
Choosing an unusual investigator in the form of a pregnant Vidya…
I think I took it from all the mothers... could be mine or yours or anybody’s. What I’ve seen in many, in my wife too, that when they become a mother something happens to them and they develop this huge mental tenacity where they can take on the world. I’ve seen women who wouldn’t step into a kitchen happily cooking for their kids. I wondered where this change comes from — must be some protective or survival instinct, something unconditional. That’s what I wanted to exploit. You put a mother in an environment she knows nothing of, how would she fend for herself or look after her child? That’s how the investigative part came through.
His own journey from engineering to writing to direction…
I come from a very simple family. I studied in Calcutta. My mother was a doctor in the UK, so I went and lived there for a while studying computer science. Then I did my MBA and came to Bombay to work for Reuters. In Bombay, everybody and their uncle has a script! You feel a little left out if you don’t have one! (Laughs.) So I got really swayed by all that and I was curious to know how to write a script. I wrote a script that a lot of people read and liked. So I left my job and went with Jhankaar Beats to a lot of people. For two years, people kept throwing me out for my ‘bakwaas script’ till I met Pritish Nandy. Since no director was willing to touch my script, I decided to direct it myself. That’s how I stepped into directing.
I love writing but directing is more social because I get to meet more people and I also get to make decisions. At home it’s my wife making all the decisions, so...! I think I also understand films a little better now and how to tell a story better. So I’m probably enjoying directing a little more than writing now.
audience Posers
On characters like Bishnu — ‘Running Hot Water’…
Running hot water has stayed in my head since I watched Joi Baba Felunath. Bishnu for me represents Calcutta. In Calcutta people think with their heart. You give them a little bit of love, they’ll do anything for you but you force them and they’ll never ever do it. With a little bit of love, you can win over Calcutta. That’s what Bishnu is when we see him offering his precious radio to Vidya. And that’s what Calcutta is to me. We did not try to glamorise Calcutta but show it the way she appears to us and the way we’ve grown up knowing her.
On the subtle romance between Rana and Vidya…
The best love stories that I have read are ones that don’t culminate. Whether it’s King Kong or Romeo and Juliet, where love is unconditional. Time has changed and our acceptance has broadened. I think it is possible for a young boy to be infatuated with somebody who is beautiful and is like a hero to him. That to me was the most progressive bit of Kahaani in our minds where a boy could have feelings for a pregnant woman but within a limit. It was a doomed love story that I wanted to write.
On his next venture...
I’m writing but the problem is, after a long time I’ve got some luck from the audience so I want to hold on to that for as long as I can! Also, we’ll have to work harder for the next one and I’m sure we’ll do it.
Text: Mohua Das