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| (From top) Saurabh Shukla and Suhasini Mulay in The Piano; Bipasha Basu in Chehraa |
Remember the Bipasha Basu-Dino Morea thriller called Chehraa, which brushed through the box-office last year without much ado? The debacle might not have caused much heartburn to the star pair, but for director Saurabh Shukla it cut deep. His debut feature film Mudda had sunk without a trace in 2003 and after Chehraa, the Delhi boy who landed in Mumbai many moons ago with hopes of making it big as a film-maker could see his dreams crumbling.
A year later, the man more famously known as Kallu Mama finds himself back on track, but on the small screen. Early this year, Shukla made telefilm Aye Dil for Zee, which went to the Delhi Film Festival, fetched him loads of accolades and boosted his confidence.
This May, he has made another one ? The Piano, starring himself and Suhasini Mulay ? for STAR One, to be telecast on May 29 at 9 pm.
The Piano is a ?black comedy about urban life? with two lonely people striking up a conversation on the phone. One is an elderly woman who posts an advertisement to sell off a piano, the other a middle-aged man who poses as a buyer. The man starts the chat out of sheer boredom, assumes various roles and keeps changing his identity. ?It?s a funny and bizarre story that I had thought of long ago. When STAR One heard of it, they wanted me to direct it. I was scared because it?s a tough film,? says Shukla, now brimming with the satisfaction of a job well done.
Though the phone conversation forms the spine of The Piano, Shukla has created three more stories to slip into the outdoors. ?The film is not just close-ups of two people on the phone. The other three stories also have proper plots and are from the man?s point of view,? says the man at ease straddling the three different worlds of directing, writing and acting.
Though he dislikes acting in a self-directed venture, Shukla was coaxed into featuring in The Piano alongside Suhasini Mulay. ?That?s too much of a job. The focus of the actor is entirely different from the director. The actor is selfish, he thinks about what he has got in a scene, while the director thinks in terms of totality,? he explains.
But more than acting or direction, it?s scriptwriting that Shukla finds the most taxing. ?I am a brat of a writer,? he chuckles. ?I keep refusing offers as I find it very intense. It?s the most difficult of the three jobs. One, you are alone and there?s the fear of falling. Second, you have to continuously bring out new ideas, and third, you are not well paid. So, I write only for friends.?
Friends like Ram Gopal Varma (Satya), Kamaal Hasan (Mumbai Express) or Rajat Kapoor (Raghu Romeo). ?The one thing I believe is that if you can forget that it?s a film, it?s a good script. I like to write the way people talk,? he adds.
Almost a decade ago, Shukla had started off his acting career as a sidekick to Vijay Anand in Karan Razdan?s TV serial Tehqikat, and the small screen has stood by him. ?I have made three telefilms and two feature films and what I have realised is that feature films wait for you to be big enough to be big themselves. But since telefilms are pre-sold products, you have creative freedom which money can?t compensate? And I don?t feel shy. TV is giving a greater turnover than the film industry,? he says.
After burning his fingers with Mudda ? the film starred Arya Babbar and Prashant Narayanan ? Shukla learnt the vital lesson of how ?different a ball game? film-making is. ?I was completely inexperienced then but in Chehraa, I tried to do my best,? he says.
The film got delayed, not due to production problems though, and that took a toll on its box-office prospects. ?After Chehraa, I was losing focus. I lost my confidence as a film-maker. But I realised that I just have to go my way,? admits Shukla.
So here he is, straddling all three worlds again ? writing Nikhil Advani?s next film, acting in Sujoy Ghosh?s Home Delivery and, in all probability, directing his third feature for Pritish Nandy Communications.
