Showing posts with label Gyan Prakash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gyan Prakash. Show all posts
Anurag Kashyap dedicates Bombay Velvet to his summer romance in New York
7:57 AM
The filmmaker reveals that a jazz singer he met in New York inspired the period-drama.
Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 15, 2015)
Movie-goers will find a mysterious name flashing in the opening credits
of Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet which opens in the theatres today. While famous Konkani singer Lorna Corderio is not a new name, many are wondering about the other, Samita Sinha. She's a beautiful girl Anurag met in New York in the summer of 2006 and it was love at first sight.
Samita, a versatile jazz singer, was doing a solo show at the Lincoln Center in New York which Anurag attended with a bunch of friends. No, the love story didn't play out like Johnny Balraj and Rosie's reel life romance, but the two left a profound impact on each other even though they never met once summer was gone.
"It was a meeting between two people during a moment of weakness...one that changed their lives forever," says Anurag, adding that Samita transformed his outlook to music. "I was completely smitten by her. It was an infatuation hard to explain. But there could never be anything more," he recalls.
Samita, originally from Bihar, studied at Yale, then went on to read music at Bard College in NY. "The same summer I met writer Gyan Prakash (author of Mumbai Fables). What an emotionally-stirring summer that was," he smiles.
Has Samita and her brand of music found its way into Bombay Velvet ? "It's inspired the film. I wanted music that could sound like hers and found Amit Trivedi to create it. I have a deep love for Samita that will remain forever. Some people you value and cherish all your life. She's one such incredible woman," he signs off.
Anurag Kashyap playfully told me that I may have OCD-Manish Chaudhari
8:09 AM
Manish Chaudhari talks about his character in Bombay Velvet, which draws its inspiration from Russi Karanjia, the flamboyant pioneer of tabloid journalism
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 20, 2015)
Anurag Kashyap's period
drama, Bombay Velvet, draws inspiration from its
screenplay writer, Gyan Prakash's book Mumbai Fables. And
Manish Chaudhari who plays charismatic newspaper editor, Jimmy Mistry,
admits he based Jimmy on Blitz editor, Russi Karanjia.
“During the initial discussions, I asked Gyan, a professor of modern Indian history at Princeton, which Mumbai club Russi would have frequented? He retorted, 'Russi didn't need to go to a club. He was the 'club', the world came to him.' That line became the spine of my prep,“ says Manish from Bhuj, where he's shooting Ashutosh Gowarikar's period drama, Mohenjo-daro.
As part of his research, Manish visited Russi's closed-up house in Cuffe Parade, went up the stairs to his office, discussed the jazz days with Taj Mahal Foxtrot's author, Naresh Fernandes, and spoke with Russi's colleagues, including Feroze Chandra, about the man who pioneered tabloid journalism in India with a weekly that promoted itself by painting its page one onto the side of the five-storey building opposite its office, the tallest building in Mumbai then.
“Blitz was known for its breaking news but Russi was a journalist of integrity who despite dressing up like an upper-class Parsi championed the cause of the underdog, from factory and mill workers to farmers. His colleagues looked up to him,“ says Manish. Will any of the Blitz scoops make their way into the film? “Some will, won't say which,“ he laughs, adding that Jimmy's nemisis in the film is Karan Johar's character.
Anurag approached him in 2009 after he seeing him in Ranbir Kapoor's Rocket Singh and sent him an early copy of the screenplay in 2012. Later, after seeing Manish working on the details of his look with the sylists and make-up artists, the director playfully told the actor that he may have OCD.
“I ended up with a cigar between my lips and in a safari suit,“ says Manish who met an 80-year-old tailor, working out of the ground floor of the former Blitz building. “He and his father made Russi's suits. His anecdotes and pictures, along with the other research, were my references. I hope Russi's family, friends and colleagues will enjoy Jimmy.“
“During the initial discussions, I asked Gyan, a professor of modern Indian history at Princeton, which Mumbai club Russi would have frequented? He retorted, 'Russi didn't need to go to a club. He was the 'club', the world came to him.' That line became the spine of my prep,“ says Manish from Bhuj, where he's shooting Ashutosh Gowarikar's period drama, Mohenjo-daro.
As part of his research, Manish visited Russi's closed-up house in Cuffe Parade, went up the stairs to his office, discussed the jazz days with Taj Mahal Foxtrot's author, Naresh Fernandes, and spoke with Russi's colleagues, including Feroze Chandra, about the man who pioneered tabloid journalism in India with a weekly that promoted itself by painting its page one onto the side of the five-storey building opposite its office, the tallest building in Mumbai then.
“Blitz was known for its breaking news but Russi was a journalist of integrity who despite dressing up like an upper-class Parsi championed the cause of the underdog, from factory and mill workers to farmers. His colleagues looked up to him,“ says Manish. Will any of the Blitz scoops make their way into the film? “Some will, won't say which,“ he laughs, adding that Jimmy's nemisis in the film is Karan Johar's character.
Anurag approached him in 2009 after he seeing him in Ranbir Kapoor's Rocket Singh and sent him an early copy of the screenplay in 2012. Later, after seeing Manish working on the details of his look with the sylists and make-up artists, the director playfully told the actor that he may have OCD.
“I ended up with a cigar between my lips and in a safari suit,“ says Manish who met an 80-year-old tailor, working out of the ground floor of the former Blitz building. “He and his father made Russi's suits. His anecdotes and pictures, along with the other research, were my references. I hope Russi's family, friends and colleagues will enjoy Jimmy.“
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