Starting with the box-office opening, trade analysts are going out of their way to suggest that Shanghai’s start has been very disappointing…

I don’t know why anybody would do that. Because the numbers have been great. Even PVR (the producers) and me were discussing why such a buzz is being created. On Friday we did Rs 3.5 crore. [The trade puts it at Rs 3.35 crore.] On Saturday and Sunday, there was a 30 to 40 per cent jump. [Saturday: Rs 4.25 crore, Sunday: Rs 4.5 crore.] On Monday the figures were better than Friday. [The trade puts the Monday figure at Rs 1.75 crore.] So it has caught on. A film like Shanghai is like slow fire, it will keep getting better.

Is then the positioning of Shanghai wrong with the figures being constantly compared to Rowdy Rathore?

Why would we take on Rowdy Rathore? Or any other big mainstream film for that matter? Ours is a much smaller film. We made the film for Rs 12 crore. We spent around Rs 8 crore on marketing. So it’s a Rs 20-crore film. We sold the satellite rights for Rs 8 crore. Our music fetched us Rs 2.75 crore. And the weekend total should be Rs 12 crore-plus. That means we are in the black on a Monday. How many films can do that? And we haven’t even talked about home video and international figures.... It’s a profitable film.

If anybody compares Shanghai with Rowdy Rathore, he needs to get his head examined. Rowdy Rathore is an Akshay Kumar film released with 2,600 prints. Shanghai is a Dibakar Banerjee film in the tradition of an Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! or a Love Sex Aur Dhokha released with 1,100 prints. I don’t see why the two should be compared.

But you also have Emraan Hashmi who gets huge numbers in the opening weekend…

Emraan Hashmi was never cast with the box office in mind. It was entirely a creative choice. He was cast to show the world what amazing talents Bollywood has. And also right through the promotions, we made it very clear to the Emraan Hashmi audiences that this is not a Jannat. The film was very well represented in the promotions. It might have been puzzling for people that what is Emraan Hashmi doing in a Dibakar Banerjee film but that was a calculated risk that Emraan and me sat and decided to take. He is there in Shanghai because he deserves to be there.

It may baffle you but all my films have baffled people. Oye Lucky! baffled the Khosla Ka Ghosla audiences. LSD baffled the Oye Lucky! audiences. And so it is with Shanghai.

Officially you adapt Z the book by Vassilis Vassilikos but there’s a lot that you have taken from Z the film by Costa-Gavras…

I have seen Z, of course, but I forgot the film totally. Shanghai takes much more from the book than the film. The second half is totally different from the original film. Also in Shanghai, you know who are the people behind the killing right from the start. I realised that if you adapt such a plot in India, everyone would know who are the culprits. So my film is not about the who and the what but about the how.

Dr Ahemadi (Prosenjit) trying to safeguard people’s interest from giving away their lands… was there any particular incident from India’s recent political history that inspired you?

No isolated event has any relation to the film because that would make the film small. What I have shown in the film is a pan-Indian issue. Land-grabbing is a small part of it. What I have tried to say is: is your development my development or is your development my ruin? Both sections call themselves Indians but if one section’s development is the other section’s ruin, then is it worth it?

The songs in the film do not come naturally. They seem to pop up as inserts…

I would disagree. I have used the item number (Imported kamariya) to show the fantastic contrast between the glamour and the grind. Even in the script, the item number was there, shown in parallel cuts with Dr Ahemadi’s speech and eventual murder. The glamorous item number makes whatever is happening in the square look so much more amplified.

Coming to the other song, Bharat maata ki jai, I have used it in a telling way of developing a character. It’s how Emraan celebrates the fact that he has just been asked to meet Kalki, the foreign girl he has taken a liking to. Also, in the song he is dancing with the very man who would turn out to be the [BEEP!] in the second half of the film. So, that’s destiny and this song too was scripted right from the start. I don’t want to shy away from songs. I am an Indian filmmaker and I will have songs in my films.

Is the ending too much of a fairy tale? Abhay Deol’s change of mind seemed a tad forced…

See, nothing changed. Dr Ahemadi’s widow got into power in the end. But what Abhay did is what many government officers in India do. I can’t tell you what my research showed me… what lies at the bottom of many of the exposes we read in the papers. It’s often the personal choice of some government officer that sometimes gets buried or sometimes comes to the fore.

Finally, isn’t Shanghai the title way too far-fetched?

I don’t think so. I think it’s the perfect title. Kasam khoon ki khai hai, sheher nahin Shanghai hai…. Shanghai is the ultimate city of dreams. It is not an obvious title. You have to make the connection.... That is if you want to.

Pratim D. Gupta

What do you want to ask Dibakar Banerjee about Shanghai? Tell t2@abp.in