As Chandni Bar clocks in 20 years, the filmmaker says that he wants to take the story ahead as there’s still a lot left to be said about the subject
Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; September 28, 2021)

Madhur Bhandarkar recently completed his 15th film that revolves around the first phase of the lockdown due to COVID-19, but the memories of his landmark project, Chandni Bar, are still fresh in his mind. This was his second film as a director, which gave him the identity that he proudly holds on to even today. On the film’s 20th anniversary, in an interview with BT, the filmmaker reveals why he wants to make Chandni Bar 2.0 and more. Excerpts:

As a filmmaker who debuted with a commercial potboiler like Trishakti (1999), what drew you to Chandni Bar at that stage of your career?
Trishakti was a potboiler, but it tanked at the box office. That was the time when people were making cinema of that kind. I was a newcomer and I wanted to get into direction. Hopping onto that bandwagon seemed safe. But the film took three years in the making and when it was released, it looked stale and didn’t do much. Beggars can’t be choosers. I went with the first film that I could get a producer to approve. Before I made Trishakti, I had approached producers and shared some of my ideas. Some said, ‘Yeh toh Shyam Benegal aur Govind Nihalani ka space hai.’ A popular producer told me to tell him the message of my film. He offered to SMS it to the whole industry, and said that he would rather spend money on sending the message across directly than make the film. Trishakti was seen as my professional obituary by many. Thankfully, some people saw that I did know my technique and when I got the chance, Chandni Bar became my second film.

For Chandni Bar, like most of your other films that followed, we believe you did thorough research on your own…
Chandni Bar happened because a wealthy friend of mine once took me to a ladies bar during summer, post Trishakti’s release. When he took me there, I didn’t know exactly where we were going.

Even though I was not a recognised face, I became conscious as I didn’t want anyone to see me there and think ki Trishakti pit gayi to main bar jaane laga hoon (laughs!).

My first experience of the bar was seeing women dance to Mungda and Do Ghunt Mujhe Bhi Pila De Sharaabi in bright, colourful clothes and a room packed with people smoking. Log paisa uda rahe the. I left the place early, but that image haunted me and left me intrigued about who these girls really are. I had spoiled my friend’s evening, but I wanted to go there again, so I requested him for another round. When my friend asked me why I wanted to go there again, I told him that that visual bothered me and I wanted to observe some more.

How did you do the groundwork needed for your film?
I had cast an actor in Trishakti, who owned a bar. He got me the access. He made me sit in the bar dancers’ dressing room and told them that I am a documentary filmmaker. Slowly, I befriended the girls, the staff and the bouncers. I would crack jokes and mimic actors to entertain them. I blended into their group and then, they opened up to me. My writer and I must have gone to at least 60 bars between Mira Road and Mumbai Central. I started writing down their stories, their reasons to be in the business and so on. Eventually, 80 per cent of the film was based on reality. When I told my friend that I wanted to make a movie on bar dancers, he said no one would watch a film like that, but that didn’t stop me. If I was making Chandni Bar today, I could have made a three-season web series with the material that I still have.

Tabu has always been very selective about the roles she chooses to play. Was she always your first choice and how did you convince her to be a part of the film?
For me, she was Mumtaz (the protagonist played by Tabu) even before I narrated the film to her. I didn’t know her, but she was my first choice. My producer R Mohan was sceptical if she’d agree, given how busy she was. It was a new concept with a new filmmaker, we had virtually no budget, and we wanted her to play the mother of two teenage children. It took us 45 days to get a window with her. With every passing minute in the narration, she started getting immersed into the world, the subject and the character. She believed in my vision when I didn’t have any credentials. Tabu reinvented me and stood by me like a rock. She didn’t let me change the name of the film, which I was told to do. People thought Chandni Bar was a sleazy, C-grade title. We made the film on a budget of Rs. 1.5 crore; Kareena Kapoor Khan’s costumes in Heroine cost me more. The film picked up through word of mouth. And I won a National Award for it. It made me who I am.

How committed are you to take the story of Chandni Bar forward?
I want to make Chandni Bar 2.0 either as a show or as a movie, but it may not happen immediately as I have committed my time to other projects.

Whenever it happens, it will delve into how the lives of these bar dancers came crashing down when dance bars were forced to shut shop. A lot of them were out of work and the dynamics of their business changed forever. We may have moved on, but the lives of these dancers were damaged forever.


---------------------------
Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; September 28, 2021)

After filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar’s debut directorial Trishakti (1999) bombed at the box office, his 2001 film Chandni Bar marked a turning point in his career. As the critically acclaimed film completes 20 years of its release today, he looks back at how his first visit to a dance bar nudged him to helm the project. “Girls in flashy sarees, ghaghra cholis and churidars were dancing to jarring music... That night before I went to sleep, those visuals flashed before my eyes,” Bhandarkar recalls.

The film was made on a budget of mere Rs. 1.5 crore, and he hails its leading lady, Tabu, for agreeing to do it. “I wrote the story keeping her in mind. Tabu was my first and last choice,” Bhandarkar says, adding that releasing the “hard-hitting” film wasn’t a cakewalk. “Many prominent people said Chandni Bar was a sleazy title,” he shares.

But things changed for him when the film won a National Award. “From a nobody, I became someone who makes realistic cinema. I couldn’t believe it when I received the award from late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Tabu kept asking how I was feeling and I was speechless,” he ends.

‘Have ideas for chandni bar 2.0’
“Mumbai bars shut in 2005 and I kept wondering what happened to these women. I’ve been researching on it since 2005. Many of them died by suicide, some went abroad. There’s a lot of pathos and emotions attached to their stories. With Chandni Bar 2.0, I want to revisit that zone. I’m intrigued. I’m craving to tell the story. I have some ideas but haven’t streamlined it yet,” shares Bhandarkar.