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| The international cast of Kabul Express on location in KabulDirector Kabir Khan (centre) with John Abraham and Arshad Warsi |
Why would a successful documentary film-maker like you try his hand at mainstream Bollywood?
The 260-odd channels on Indian television have killed the space for documentaries. They prefer low-budget soaps. My documentaries are expensive because I shoot in places like Afghanistan and Burma with an international political backdrop. They have to be commissioned by international bodies from the US or Europe or networks like Discovery. While channels like NSK in Japan and Canal in France buy my films, they do not get seen in India. That’s frustrating for any communicator. So I missed being seen in my country and I thought a feature film would be a good idea.
How did you cater to the commercial aspects of the industry while making Kabul Express?
There was no commercial consideration while making the film. There are not even elements of what people call crossover. And that’s what producer Aditya Chopra liked about my script — it was fresh, it was new. He told me not to get diluted by any commercial aspects. John Abraham and Arshad Warsi, who signed the film even before Yash Raj Films came on board, liked Kabul Express the way it was. I could have put in a gypsy song if I wanted to, but I would not have been needed to make a normal mainstream film.
Why did you go to Yash Raj known mainly for their romantic movies?
They called me. I was doing the regular rounds of producers with my script. I didn’t know anybody in Mumbai. I was a documentary film-maker from Delhi who had shifted to Mumbai just five years back. And my idea was too radical for these producers. They all loved my idea but they did not put their money where their mouth was. Yash Raj came forward and backed me totally.
Were you tempted to cast the Shah Rukhs and Aamirs with the Yash Raj banner behind you?
Yash Raj did ask me to pick and choose anybody but I had no such temptations. Arshad was an old friend who was with me right through the scripting stage. John too had committed to do the film. They were both keen to go and shoot in Afghanistan. And that was important to me more than casting people who would do the film because it was a Yash Raj production.
You have already made two documentaries on post-Taliban Afghanistan. Did you have to tamper with the realities for Kabul Express?
Yes, I made The Taliban Years and Beyond and The Titanic Sinks in Kabul. In Kabul Express, certain incidents were straight from the documentaries. There are many things you can show in a feature film that you can’t show in a documentary. I wanted to show those off-camera moments in Kabul Express. The script was changed to make it into an entertaining story.
I did glorify some of the scenes in the film but at places I had to tone it down. Because the incidents were so bizarre that people would have found them crap if I kept them like they were. We were in Tajikistan for 14 days trying to somehow sneak into Kabul. Finally, we bribed a Russian military captain and he took us in his helicopter over the Hindu Kush mountains. We were dropped from the chopper in a no man’s land and there was this burly Mujahideen interrogating us. When he heard we were Indians, he actually broke off into Hindi film songs. If I had shown that, people would have thought it was my attempt at slapstick comedy.
Was it less dangerous to shoot a big-budget feature film as opposed to a small documentary?
When we shot the documentary, we were in middle of the action and we had no idea what we were getting into. When we shot the feature, we were just recreating that period. But small-scale wars were still on in Afghanistan, the Talibans were around and there were landmines here and there. As a documentary maker with my two or three member crew I could blend in the background. I could grow a stubble, dress up like an Afghan and hang around the most dangerous of places. But with a feature film crew of 70 to 80 people, it was a spectacle, a mela. We were naturally a target of the Taliban.
You must be used to death threats but the Taliban must have sent ripples across your cast and crew…
While making documentaries, I am not used to such threats. There, I may step into a minefield or get caught in a crossfire but when somebody actually targets you, that’s something else. Also, here I was taking the responsibility of more than 70 people and taking a decision was a tough one. At one point, when the Taliban threatened John and Arshad, I almost aborted the shoot. And that would have meant that the film could not have been completed because no other place in the world resembles Afghanistan. But then I did background checks with the Afghan and Indian intelligences and the government there gave us 60 armed guards.
Now that you have shot both, what do you prefer shooting — feature films or documentaries?
Both have their own thrills. My friends often ask me whether it is a bye-bye to documentaries, now that I have made a feature. But I want to continue doing both forms of cinema. Because my documentaries form the raw materials for my feature scripts. Also, they are more personal. There are many things that you can’t do while shooting a feature. It is so unpredictable.
Will you do a full round of festivals before the commercial release?
Kabul Express is premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. We have also got feelers from Pusan. But we are keen to release the film commercially rather than do the full round of festivals. We feel the film will be immensely enjoyed by Indian audiences.