A month before, Anubhav Sinha to film a short on pandemic; remembers Rishi on Mulk’s anniversary
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 3, 2020)

Anubhav Sinha plans to get back to action in November with a 25-minute short, part of a five-film anthology on the common theme of the Coronavirus pandemic. It will be helmed by five directors in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Delhi. While Hansal Mehta’s film is dark and funny, Sudhir Mishra’s is a social with political undertones and Subhash Kapoor’s has elements of science-fiction. Ketan Mehta is yet to finalise his subject but Anubhav’s film is about how the pandemic started out as a rich man’s disease with only those who had been to Italy and China at risk, but has now resulted in a clear class divide. “The rich are safe in their homes, five-star hotels and private hospitals while the poor struggle to survive,” he rues. Born out of regular phone conversations with filmmaker-friends, the project aims to chronicle these unusual times.

In December, he expects to roll with the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer which was to flag off in April. “The film will be shot in a nearby jungle. I hope a vaccine finds its way to Mumbai by then because I hate talking through a mask and no matter how much we pretend, most directors are incorrigibly indisciplined,” asserts the filmmaker who has been working on two other scripts through the lockdown, one alone, the other with Thappad co-writer, Mrunmayee Lagoo. Will either of them reunite him with Taapsee Pannu? “Taapsee is a habit and I may have something for her, but she has to like it too,” he says.

Today is the second anniversary of Mulk, which featured Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee and Rajat Kapoor in the lead. Anubhav recalls going to meet Rishi nervously for the role of Murad Ali Mohammed. He was Immediately thrown off when the veteran actor looked pointedly at his script and asked, “Pura sunayenge?” He agreed to do the film after a 15-minute narration, wondering curiously, “Hero kaun hai?” This time Anubhav surprised him, saying, “You are.”

It was a struggle getting finance, but Mulk finally rolled in October 2017, in Lucknow. As he was setting up the second shot, the director noticed his ‘hero’ observing him with a smile. When prodded, Rishi admitted he was wondering if he was old school or like some new-age directors, taking the shot from 15 angles. Anubhav smiled back, “I’m somewhere in between the two.” Anubhav himself wondered if Rishi was anything like his uncle, Shammi, with whom he’d done his first TV serial, Shikast, and discovered the two Kapoors shared a passion for food and had the same flamboyance.

“Both were born stars—one in the home of Prithviraj Kapoor, the other in Raj Kapoor’s—and instinctive actors who didn’t believe in too much discussion. Chintu ji would simply insist I explain the scene to him before the shot and observe me carefully while I spoke. From that he’d deduce what I wanted,” reminisces Anubhav.

They finished Mulk in 27 days but even after the final shot was taken on November 9, “Chintu ji wasn’t convinced the film was over and insisted I keep 10 days as a back-up. Then, one day my CFO came to me asking if I had some shooting left, saying Chintu ji had allotted dates between January 5 and 15, 2018,” he recounts with a smile. “During the censor screening, Chintu ji was on tenterhooks, calling every 30 seconds for an update, afraid Mulk would be banned. After a 90-minute discussion, when I stepped out with a U/A certificate and told him so, he repeated in disbelief, ‘You mean picture release hogi!’”

The film opened on August 3, 2018, to rave reviews. Soon after, Rishi was diagnosed with cancer and went away to the US for treatment. “On his return, we met at the Bachchans’ Diwali party. I ran to hug him little knowing that he’d go away so soon. I had planned many more movies with him,” Anubhav sighs.