Almost two years ago, outside the screening room of Prithvi theatre, I found a huge queue. While there's always an interested bunch of people in the monthly documentaries that are screened as part of the Vikalp-Prithvi screenings, this was a rare sight. Later, the continuous collective bursts of laughter during the screening was another rarity for documentaries (often considered serious) too. This was during the screening of Hardik Mehta’s, Amdavad Ma Famous, a heart-warming film centred around a nine-year-old boy during Uttarayan's kite festival in Dhal Ni Pole, Ahmedabad. The film (now on Netflix) won him the National Award for Best Non-Feature Film.
Besides evoking tender feelings, restrained humour is intrinsic part of his works so far too; also at display in his shorts – Chal Meri Luna (2010) and The Affair (2017).
I talked to Hardik about his first feature film, Kaamyaab ahead of its premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in October in The Window on Asian Cinema section. The drama is based on a seasoned character actor who decides to come out of retirement and begins a quest for a record of some sorts, that elusive 500th role, the one for which he shall be remembered forever.
During the conversation, there's amusement as he talks about the subject of the film, and a certain sense of responsibility as well. While talking about one of the actors, Birbal, he makes sure to remind me of his presence in Sholay — as the guy whose half moustache was shaved off by the the character played by Kesto Mukherjee.
He goes on to talk about progressing from being assistants on films like Lootera, Queen and co-writer for Trapped, directing his documentary to now a feature film.
Excerpts:
Are you excited with the film set to premiere at Busan Film Festival?
After one year of work, when your film is finally coming out is such a different feeling. To top it, it's being screened at a big film festival. The feeling is indescribable.
I was not sure if it's a festival film or not. We have Sanjay Mishra and Deepak Dobriyal in the cast, who are mainstream actors. Although, Sanjay sir has done his share of indie films like Masaan, Aankhon Dekhi and some really interesting roles. Kaamyaab is also a very Indian film in its essence. In India, we have these defined terms like character actors. Actors are divided into categories in our country, stereotyped. I was not sure whether it is a festival film at all, and I have got the best of both the worlds (parallel and mainstream). I think that is what today's filmmakers want—to be recognised at a global stage and have an Indian credibility as well. There are few films like Newton and Masaan to have been equally appreciated at the international festivals and by the people. I am happy that my film is on that path. To belong to that tribe is not bad.
What was the trigger to make a film around a character actor?
First of all, it was to do with how everyone is such a big fan of cinema in India. Everyone has grown up watching films on Zee Cinema and Set Max. While growing up in Baroda, I used to watch a lot of films in theatres too. In those years, before watching the film, you decided by watching the posters of the films. And the posters would have all these people, the character actors. And more the number of characters, more intriguing it would get. You would think, ‘oh, there's Amrish Puri or Raza Murad or Sadashiv Amrapurkar’. Or, you may think about Mac Mohan, Sharat Saxena, Dalip Tahil. The more number of villains, the more the hero has to fight. The thought of it would be very interesting. And now, in the multiplex era, and the time when it’s all about 100 crores and 500 crores, those faces have gone out of the posters completely. It is mostly about the hero, the heroine gets lucky sometimes if she gets a place on the poster. I often thought about these character actors, and what happened to them, their life and how they led it.
Once while doing some Facebook research, I found Dan Dhanoa who starred in films like Vishwatma and Mohra, playing mostly Amrish Puri's son. He had become a shipping engineer in Brazil in Rio De Janeiro. I was amused thinking that this guy used to be a henchman, a villain's son, and now he is a shipping engineer. I felt this topic needs to be worked upon. Also, in India, we have a huge culture of consuming films, but films about films is every studio’s nightmare. People think of it as a guaranteed failure. But then Om Shanti Om worked wonders. And now that it’s been 10 years to OSO, I thought let’s bring something back about these old character actors playing advocate, inspector, daaku, doctor, dentist. All these professions that exist in real life have always been played by the side actors. Hero inspector toh fir bhi ban jaate the, but we’ve seldom seen him in other such roles. That’s how Kaamyaab shaped.
You still seem so amused by their lives. How was the experience researching? You must have come across many anecdotes?
Oh, lovely anecdotes! Some of them are a part of the film. I remember whenever I went to meet Birbal ji at his home, he used to be watching some or the other film on one of the channels. He said that he was in that film, and the scene would come later. The scene came after an hour and we laughed. Then he changed the channel, Farishtay was playing, and then he said he has acted in that too. He has been an actor since 1967 when films were still made in black and white. He was Manoj Kumar’s friend in Raj Khosla’s Do Badan, and is still active in 2018. He has been stereotyped as a Hindu pandit or the hawaldar. It was really funny. It also gave us an idea of how to shape the journey of our main protagonist who has been wanting to do a record feature or a complete round number and finish off his career in style.
Then, who better than Sanjay Mishra to play that. He has been a character actor throughout the 90s and 2000s—the comedian, the fall guy, the sidekick. He is such a great actor too. He deserves his own film at the end of the day.
He would have so many experiences as well…
He shared so much. We couldn’t use all in the film, but there were some really interesting experiences about being a ‘part-celebrity’, and hearing things like, ‘arre, usko filmon me dekha hai, but don’t remember kisme…’. He was in All The Best, saying a dialogue, dhondu beta just chill…’ And every time, someone recognised him, they would shout, ae, dhondu beta. Then, he had portrayed Apple Singh in the commercial during Cricket World Cup 1999, and everybody started calling him Apple Singh. He only came to be known as Sanjay Mishra after Ankhon Dekhi and Masaan. One such starkly comic moment was at his father’s funeral when someone from another funeral at the cremation ground recognised him, pulled him towards the crowd he was a part of, and started talking about how he is the actor from so and so film. And, also clicking pictures. It would have been heart-breaking to deal with, but at the same time it’s darkly comic.
How would you describe your journey from assisting on films to making a documentary that won a National Award, delightful short films to now an anticipated feature…
One thing that the school of Anurag Kashyap teaches you is that you’ve to do it on your own. There’s no other way. No one is going to tell you that you’re a filmmaker, make a film for me. I have to decide that I have to make a film which probably the world will like, or may be they won’t like, but I have to begin. Now, with the digital space opening up, we all picked up our cameras and started shooting on our own. That gave us a lot of confidence and go ahead and do features also. Also, thanks to mentors like Anurag and Vikram. I assisted on Lootera and Queen, but it never meant that they would produce my film. I had to go out and prove myself, that’s how Amdavad… started. The Affair was something that was close to me as a subject.
Was it easier to get producers after these films?
Yes, yes. If you have a short film, that gets seen by people. Every emerging filmmaker has to understand that a good short, docu or animation, can be your big ticket to something else. That doesn’t mean you will not go back to shorts because each story will have its own form and representation. But for Kaamyaab, I felt it deserved a full-length film. And thanks to Devashish Makhija who pushed me to think of a feature length film on the subject.
We also knew that for our first feature, we are not going to get more that three-four crores to make the film. So, you’ve to contain that while also ensuring there’s lots of humour in the film, lots of pathos too. That’s how Kaamyaab has shaped up. These are the things you learn while on the journey of making the film, you don’t decide it from the beginning.
After Busan, what next in the film’s journey?
Eros and Drishyam will soon be coming out with a release date and we will be reaching out to as many people as we can. And I am hoping that the trailer will do its magic, as the poster (a striking one created by Prashant Chaugule and SEEKRED) has already done. I wasn’t sure about the poster and Manish (Mundra, producer) said that we have to go out with the posters, and his idea worked so well.
The idea behind the poster (featuring Sanjay Mishra in multiple looks) is quite interesting…
My idea was to bring the people like the doctor, daaku… etc back to the poster, but also make it contemporary instead of the blocks in the older posters.
Have you started working on something else?
I am looking forward to Kaamyaab's response. Meanwhile, I am working on an Amazon Prime series that is being produced by Anushka Sharma's production house, and I am really enjoying working with screenwriter Sudip Sharma who has previously written Udta Punjab and NH10.
