Vikramaditya Motwane

This year no other Hindi film has polarised the audience like Vikramaditya Motwane’s period piece Lootera. t2 met the director at a quaint bungalow in Versova, Mumbai, that is Phantom Films’ (the film’s producers) office. Dressed in a tee and jeans, Vikram is seated behind an antique desk that wouldn’t have been out of place in his film. While the bouquets and brickbats for the film are still rolling in, Vikram is back from a break in Rome. “This was my first time in Italy. I wanted to get away for at least three weeks but I had to come back early. I am really glad that a majority of people have loved the film. There will always be some who won’t like it. It’s impossible to please everyone,” he says with a shrug.

Adjectives like ‘poignant’ and ‘ethereal’ have been used to describe Lootera. What is the nicest compliment you’ve got?

Yesterday, someone called it deft.... (Laughs) Superlative for me doesn’t really mean a lot. If one more person uses the words ‘poetry’ and ‘painting’ to describe the film, I’ll kill someone! For me, the best compliment is when people say that they were moved by the film. After a point, Lootera is not about how it looks. For me, it’s the story and not the craft that is important. I almost sense that when people are talking about the craft, they are trying to say that the story probably didn’t work for them.

There is a feeling among the audience and the critics that there are loopholes but they are overlooking them because the film is so beautiful.

I have no problem with criticism. It’s interesting that there is a debate about the film. If the technicalities are overpowering the basic story, it’s not a good thing and is a fault of mine. Maybe it’s just that kind of film that ends up looking a lot better than it should. Or, the story is simply not powerful enough. It’s very tough for me to judge my film.

Was there a comment about the film that surprised you?

I have been reading people’s analysis of the film and I was surprised by how different people have interpreted scenes or dialogues. There was a reviewer who wrote a whole paragraph about Ranveer (Singh) and Sonakshi’s (Sinha) noses and how they were shot. I have never seen the film like that. People talking about the questions of hope and redemption in the second half also surprised me. Very early on, my intent was that the film should go from warm to cold and back to warm as the story progresses. For me, it was a very subconscious thing. So it was interesting that someone actually noticed it.

I have been hearing all kinds of things from people. Someone thinks there shouldn’t have been the flashback at the end. Some people think there was too much music in the film and others are complaining about too little. Some find the first half slow and the second half fast-paced, and vice versa. I have heard everything. Some think Ranveer is great but Sonakshi is okay, others believe that both are brilliant. Everyone has their own opinion.

For those who have not loved the film, the pace is the biggest problem.

I disagree with them. The problem is that not everyone had seen the movie in optimum conditions, which would be with sound played at a certain level. If the sound is soft, the film doesn’t grip you. I think it is a very well-paced film.

When the film was announced and the cast revealed, there was a sense that you had sold out by casting stars. Now that their performances have been appreciated across the board, do you feel vindicated?

I am in the spot where I am not indie enough to be indie or Bollywood enough to be Bollywood. I am stuck in the middle of nowhere. So the indie crowd is looking at me saying ‘He has cast stars’, while Bollywood is saying ‘He made a period film’. I feel vindicated more for Sonakshi than for Ranveer. In Ranveer’s case, everyone knew that he is a good actor, but Sonakshi was stuck in a mould. In Dabangg, you could see that she held her own opposite Salman Khan. You couldn’t take your eyes off her. That was a quality very few of our actresses have. I always wanted to do this film with stars. To begin with, the economics wouldn’t have worked with newcomers and also, I think it is always interesting to watch a love story with stars.

Was there someone in the cast who surprised you with his/her performance?

Barun Chanda (who played Sonakshi’s father) and Vikrant Massey (as Ranveer’s friend) were both revelations to me. I had to work a lot with them, so they weren’t easy guys to shoot with. Barunda had a tough time getting the Hindi accent right, while Vikrant likes to be taken seriously as an actor. He finds it difficult to play the slightly lighter portions of the film. So, throughout the shoot, I wasn’t sure if they were doing enough or if I had guided them properly.

What did you find the toughest to shoot?

For me, it was the chase scene (cops chasing Ranveer). I was completely freaking out about it. It took me almost six months to prepare for it. I drove the crew completely mad. Shooting a period film at a live location is next to impossible in India. There is no place left that is pristine. There are overhead cables, signboards and the architecture and aesthetics that we seem to have adopted are so bad. The chase scene was shot in a couple of bylanes from many different angles.

Are you worried about how the film is doing at the box office?

Not really. It is not an extravagant film. I just want it to do well, so actors like Ranveer and Sonakshi have the incentive to do films like these in the future.

Do you know what you are doing next?

Not yet.