Irrfan

What is a man from Harvard doing in big, bad Bollywood?

I was doing advertising in Harvard. Then I came to India once McCann was set up here. I went on to do advertising films for Nestle and Gillette. Then I thought of doing something different and went on to do television. I did a whole lot of telefilms for several channels before this first film of mine Chocolate.

What is Chocolate all about?

With Chocolate I want to revive the suspense genre which had died with Vijay Anand. I tried doing that with some of the Saturday Suspense episodes I directed. Chocolate is a typical Hitchcockian suspense. It deals with relationships and studies the journeys of several characters. It is not like a thriller or a horror film which is meant to shock you. Chocolate does not intend to thrill you but it does intend to intrigue you. On the outside it deals with global terrorism, the global chaos that we are in ? LTTE, Iraq, 9/11, Kashmir, Mumbai... It?s about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

Tanushree

Why the title Chocolate?

I had done a telefilm called Chocolate for Zee TV. The producers of my film loved the title, thought it was a very interesting name and used it. It?s not the full name. The full title of the film is Chocolate ? Deep Dark Secrets.

How did you manage to rope in so many big names ? Anil Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Irrfan, Emraan Hashmi??

Even I don?t know that. I believe the story and the script had a lot of novelty. All these actors you named are playing characters they have never played before. That must have attracted them to do the film.

Your telefilms and now your film look visually stunning?

Yes, images are very important to me. For Chocolate, we have shot almost the entire film in London. It?s about this one week ? the Christmas week from December 25 to 31. I wanted to capture the London Christmas. It was very, very cold and we had to shoot while the temperature was minus three degrees. But it had to be London. The story is such that it demanded a metro. It could have been New York, Mumbai or London. Now, most American films are set in New York. Mumbai is in every Bollywood film. So we decided on London which is a very moving and vibrating city. For me, location is indeed the first character of the film.

Anil Kapoor

What exactly will your team be performing at the IIFA Awards?

The entire star cast will be performing together. Some character may paint, some may dance, some may walk. It has been choreographed by Shiamak Davar and promises to be an absolute visual treat.

Did you have any difficulty handling such a huge star cast?

Not at all. There were no real issues. There was not even a discussion on the sets. Everything went just fine. The film will also mark music director Pritam?s first release after Dhoom.

Suniel Shetty

There were talks that Emraan Hashmi had walked out of the film?

Not at all. We had a chat even a week back. He is not only a part of the film, he is performing in Amsterdam with the rest of the cast. I heard about the reports too but I also came to know about another half-page article clarifying that nothing was wrong.

Why is there so little talk about the film?

Chocolate is such a huge film in terms of magnitude and scale that we have kept it under wraps as much as we can. We have decided not to talk too much about the film. Once the promos come on air and the film hits the theatres, people will know what Chocolate is all about.