SUNDAY, MAY 31, 2020 (PAGE 4) BOLLYWOOD BUZZ "Censor board on OTT will be disaster" Gulzar’s Ijaazat Actress Swastika Mukherjee played the role of a troubled work. I have taken a lot of risks in my career which women Sunil Fernandes Patel - in the role of her lifetime). Circumstances, tradi- actors or heroines don’t. How do we better know Sampooran Singh Kalra?". This tions and timidity (on the hero's part) lead him to marry wife who is nearing 40 in Hindi web series Pataal Lok Sudha (Rekha) and just when Mahendra and Sudha are With the advent of OTT, do you think the actors query would have most of our Millennials and Gen Z premiered on Amazon Prime Video recently. Amid the are now exposed to a wide variety of good content, trying to get their marital life on tracks, circumstances characters or roles? scurrying for their smartphones, to Google the correct conspire to lead Maya back in their lives. How does the massive success of the web series which has been Nationally, yes of course. In Kolkata, I feel people still answer - Gulzar - the legendary lyricist, poet, director, trio deal with this situation? Maya isn't your quintessen- produced by Bollywood star Anushka Sharma's Clean have that television hangover which they really need to move screenplay/dialogue writer and winner of the Oscar, tial Bollywood vamp. She respects Mahendra and Sudha's on from because now language is not a barrier. The audience Grammy, Filmfare, National and countless other awards, marriage but finds herself unable to excise all ties with Slate Films Souvik Ghosh caught up with the bold Bengali nowadays has become apt in watching something with sub- in his six decades-long versatile and distinguished career. Mahendra, who himself is inextricably and inexorably performer for an exclusive interview where she spoke titles. Also In Kolkata, I have seen a lot of non-Bengali peo- drawn towards her, feeling responsible to protect her from ple coming to the theatre to watch Bengali films. Gulzar was a only teenager when Partition permanent- her self-destructing urges. Sudha's sense of composure about Pataal Lok, Bollywood and more. Censor board has been an issue in your film ly uprooted him from his native village of Dina in Pakistani (and pity for Maya) is torn asunder when she realizes that career. Do you think actors do get relief from censor How did you come across the 'Pataal Lok' script? Punjab's Jhelum district (ironically, a district in present- Maya will be a perennial, omnipresent (and ominous) fac- board in OTT platform? Initially when I gave the audition for Dolly (Dolly Mehra, day Pakistan has given two Prime Ministers to tor in their marriage. She finds this unacceptable and in a Everyone keeps on hearing about the introduction of cen- Mukherjee’s character in 'Pataal Lok'), I had very little infor- Independent India viz. Inder Kumar Gujral and fit of impetuous rage, leaves both - her marital home and sor board to the web platform. So I feel very scared not mation. I heard the script of the series after my audition was Manmohan Singh). He ultimately wound up in Bombay, Mahendra, without any forewarning or intimation. because of me but for losing out on a lot of experimental liked very much. So initially when I heard about the series, it doing odd jobs. The calumnies of partition, an unsympa- Years later, Sudha and Mahendra meet in the waiting works and contents. If I talk about 'Sacred Games' (a popu- was completely 'need to know' basis. Later on when I was a thetic family, disagreeable financial status and a disap- room of a railway station. And the story unfolds, stunning lar Indian web series on Netflix) which is still fresh in our part of the show, I got everything in detail including the proving father could not douse the flames of a poet that the viewer. Well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Hence I memory, sex really played a character there. Not only sexual character of Dolly, her scope, the episode and the scenes. So will say nothing further. Go watch and imbibe this master- content, the censor board will also run its scissors on poli- burnt bright inside him. He was fascinated by Tagore and we didn’t know a lot about Dolly other than the fact that she piece on a corona-induced languid evening. tics, moral policing (do moral policing she meant). If there is learnt Bangla so that he could read Tagore in original. is a ‘dog-person’ and is in a complicated marriage. You can't write about Ijaazat without devoting attention a censor board, then one cannot show caste politics, CBI, Two fortuitous events conspired to give Hindi Cinema After portraying varied characters over the Hindu-Muslim irrationality, drug problem in the film. It will one of its effulgent gems. Firstly, years, how do you approach to a new character be a disaster for the people who are part of the craft if censor Gulzar was forced to leave his family now? board comes into play. and stay alone in a rented accommo- I don’t think I have actually followed any process ever in How was the floor atmosphere during the dation in suburban Bombay where his my life as far as my work is shooting for 'Pataal Lok' with so many actors? neighbors were Shailendra, Sahir concerned. Of course for The floor atmosphere was very warm. All cast Ludhianvi and Rajinder Krishan, all Dolly, I had to go through members were like really taken care of in the best genius songwriters themselves who some research work because possible manner. We faced pretty odd weather. I had had already established themselves in for her anxiety issues, as we a dream team on set. Bollywood and thereby provided generally don’t get to know Did you get in touch with Anushka Sharma Gulzar with an unplanned entrepot about mental health prob- in the course of shooting? into Bollywood. lems. I am very intuitive, so No, I didn’t meet her during the shoot. I met I really can’t have so many Secondly, a transient quarrel Karnesh (Karnesh Sharma, producer and Anushka calculations or setting of between arguably the finest music Sharma’s brother) quite a few times. Anushka I think crafts of the characters in director and finest lyricist that had gone later to visit the set but I was not in Delhi my mind. Bollywood has seen - SD "Dada" (where shooting was going on) that time. You have been in Burman and Shailendra, during the Recently two big budget Hindi films have Bengali film industry making of Bimal Roy's classic Bandini been announced to be premiered on Amazon for almost 20 years now (1963), forcing Bimal Roy to look at Prime Video. The step has drawn displeasure and also acted in several an alternative song-writer and hence from INOX instantly. Do you think the pre- Hindi films besides Gulzar got to write his hit song - "Mora Gora Ang Lai Le" to its music. RD "Pancham" Burman's musical score was a miere of films on OTT platform will become a Bengali web series. Is filmed on Nutan, and the rest as they say, was history [For fitting match to the cinematic excellence that Gulzar new normal in post-Covid world? Hindi web series the the uninitiated and in order to give context, the record for dished out. There were four songs in this movie, -all female I think this has been happening for quite some next destination for the maximum number of Filmfare Best Director Awards solos rendered by Asha Bhonsle - who won a National time now. This has come to the focus because few you? Do you plan like does not belong to Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Yash Chopra, Award for her well-deserved efforts. prominent film producers have decided to give their this? Sanjay Leela Bhansali or even a Karan Johar. It belongs to "Mera Kuch Samaan" ranks amongst my all time films to OTT. It seems like it is happening now. My No I don’t have any plans Bimal Roy, who has won 7 awards from 7 nominations favourites. Gulzar's lyrics, Pancham's music and Asha's film 'Onek Din er Por' released on OTT platform last actually. It was not a very calculated move to do a bit of work circa 1954-1964. Whenever he was nominated, no other vocals - all seamlessly combine to give us a song for the year. Then there were so many other films (which released in Bollywood. I do want to work outside Kolkata and the director could win. Bimal Roy was a veritable nursery, ages. The Ultimate Heartbreak Song. Unlike the usual Bengali film industry. I want to work in other languages. I digitally). But the thing is that the moment something hap- rule, where the tune is created first by the music director pens in Bollywood, it just gives the feeling it is happening for where some of the most talented directors, lyricists and want to grow as an actor and for that moving out of comfort and the lyrics are set to it by the lyricist, Gulzar wrote this the first time. And also because these films have such promi- technicians learnt and perfected their art - but this merits zone is very important. Since I have been a part of commer- song first and then gave it to Pancham, to compose a tune nent faces. The decision has come as a shock because people another article, for another day].