Parvin Dabas and wife Preeti Jhangiani at The Park on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

The tagline of your film is ‘Hum badmaash hai, kaminey nahin’. What’s the difference and why is that so important to Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande?

(Laughs out loud.) A badmaash would just look at a beautiful girl on the street while a kamina would actually make a pass. In the film, these four guys are actually badmaashes... they are small-time goons who kidnap for a ransom, break people’s legs, empty houses for money. Now they have a new assignment which will get them a lot of money but they have to go against their conscience, become kaminey.

Was this moral code the starting point of your film?

These galat bandes are people I have known, who came from good families and who got into this small-time gundagardi just for tashan... for the stylebaazi of it. And then they got more and more enmeshed into it. Then there is the theme of the film, which involves a national issue and is also the big twist of the movie. So I wanted to bring together the two worlds and that’s how I started scripting Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande.

The film looks very edgy from the trailers...

I have my own photography background and so it was very important that my cinematographer and I were on the same page. I wanted the film to have a very different look from what we see around us. Also, I had a very tight schedule of 30 days and I wanted the frenetic pace at which we were shooting to show up on screen. I wanted to experiment with different mediums. While we have shot most of the film on Super 16, for the flashback sequence I wanted to shoot on Super 8, which was used in the 1960s and 1970s and which gives a natural grain, rather than shoot on HD and achieve the same in post-production. Anshul Chaubey, my cinematographer, shared my beliefs.

Did all these years of acting turn out to be film school for you?

I think I am naturally a very curious kind of a guy. I was never someone who would go on the sets, just shoot my lines and go home. Also, being a photography student, I understood the lenses and the camera. I had no fear. I have had conversations with cinematographers, some of whom have been the best around. So, I was always that curious guy trying to understand how the whole medium works.

Was casting yourself a difficult decision?

I knew the character really well. But yes, the multitasking aspect of it was a concern. So to prepare myself for the challenge — acting and directing at the same time — we rehearsed quite a lot. The four of us were on location two weeks in advance. Also, I wanted each character to be a character and not have an image attached to it. And I feel so far I did not have an image attached to me as an actor. I didn’t want to make the character a ‘hero’. If I had approached a star for the same, he would have made it his film. I wanted Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande to be a film featuring four leads.

The decision to produce the film yourself — was it a joint decision between you and your wife (Preeti Jhangiani)?

It was a joint decision. In fact, we were trying to put together another project before this, which I wasn’t directing. Whenever a new production house goes to a corporate house, they have so many opinions, so many doubts... it was a process which took away a year of ours. And we didn’t want to go through the same thing for this film. After I finished my script, I gave it to Anupam Kher for feedback and the feedback was very good and we decided to go ahead with it. We wanted to make it on our own terms. We were very confident and we were able to put the funds in place very quickly. I am proud to present this film... as the first film from our company Very Fishy Films. I don’t know whether people will like it, but I am proud.

How was Preeti as a first-time producer?

She’s very good professionally. Sometimes she is too soft for other people. That makes people want to work with us again. Because she is so caring. She has other people’s interest in mind as much as she has the production company’s interest in mind. That comes from where she is as a human being. We really want this production company to be a place where people are comfortable and want to come back to work.

Any concerns over releasing Sahi Bande on the same day (August 19) as Ram Gopal Varma’s Not a Love Story?

I will be very frank with you. There are many crabs in our society but I would like to believe I am not one of them. I do feel there is a lot of space for everyone. Practically speaking, it’s competition but I don’t view it like that. I would never want people to come and see my film over somebody else’s film. If someone chooses to see the other film, that’s all right with me.

Preeti positive

“Making a film some day was always on Parvin’s mind but it was never on my mind. It was the last thing on my mind. As an actor I would shoot and go back home. But I have always loved watching a lot of movies and I have watched a lot of world cinema. So while making a movie was never on my mind, it also wasn’t too far away a thought. When he gave me the script to read, I knew that it would have to go through a lot of changes if we were to take it to someone. It’s a desi film but shot in a very contemporary way and our audiences are now ready for something as radical as this. We didn’t think there was a role for me in the film. The leading lady in our film, played by Tina Desai, needed to be a bohemian. We didn’t make the production house to cast ourselves in the first place. We want to make good cinema.”
— Preeti Jhangiani

sahi bande, galat timing

The story goes that when Parvin held a few test screenings of his film Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande, someone in the industry watched it and recommended the film to Karan Johar. KJo saw the film and loved it so much he wanted to remake the same with Salman Khan playing the lead. Of course with Parvin as director. A screening was arranged for Salman too! He also loved the film and wanted to do it. But he had no dates till 2012 and Parvin didn’t want to wait that long, especially after having a ready film in the cans. When t2 quizzed Parvin about the whole KJo-Salman episode, he chose to remain mum. All he said was: “Yes, there is truth in the story... let’s just say that my film was made... whatever interest there was, was a big compliment for me.”

Do you want to watch Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande? Why? Tell t2@abp.in