Ronnie Screwvala, who has 12 films in pipeline, predicts cinema halls won’t run to full capacity till there’s a vaccine; says industry looking at tough 18 months ahead
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 19, 2020)

Do you think the appetite for films will change in the post-Coronavirus era, with a clear demarcation between the big screen and small screen cinema?
I think it’s all about the storytelling and not screen size. At the moment, we’re battling the virus and 18 months away from the post-Covid era. For the next year or year-and-a-half, people will be wary of risking their health for a cinematic experience. But films will not go away and neither will theatres. It’s a strong window, but things will change and we will have to work 10 times harder on the creative content, storytelling and scale to bring the audience into the cinema halls again.

Does that mean smaller films will find it difficult to get screens?
No, if you have a gem of a story, it’s a big film already. People go to theatres because they don’t want to wait eight weeks. It has never been cinema v/s OTT as each one augments a market and grows.

When do you expect cinema halls to open and a constant flow of big releases?
Mumbai and Delhi, which account for 65 per cent of the box-office, are the worst-hit cities right now. Until they open up, nobody will want a release in only Pune, Nagpur and Kanpur. Makers of big films will wait to see if people are coming back to the cinemas. I don’t see some of them arriving this year. I don’t see theatres opening till October and even when they do, they won’t run to full capacity until the vaccine arrives. Entertainment will be the last priority for people. Next year, one will feel the pinch because there will be a drought of releases as few new films will roll for the next six-seven months, so there won’t be any more fights for the weekends. There aren’t too many films in the waiting, and you will see the gap over the next 18 months.

Do you think this is the right time to renegotiate on ticket rates, VPF (Virtual Print Fee) and other issues with theatre owners?
I have strong views on this, that’s why I got into the Competition Commission. Unfortunately, there is no unanimity.

You have backed films like Rang De Basanti, Khosla Ka Ghosla, A Wednesday and Aamir which were way ahead of their time. What gave you the courage and conviction?
Rang De Basanti was one of the first films we made, it could have been before its time, but it was not. Jodhaa Akbar was an expensive film, but again it broke the mould. People thought Aamir, A Wednesday and Khosla Ka Ghosla were small, but they worked big time. Anurag Basu narrated just 40 lines of the Barfi! script to me, look how the film turned out to be. Of all our films, only Swades was before its time, but it was a gem of a film.

Next up: The Immortal Ashwatthama with Vicky Kaushal, a fantasy trilogy based on the Mahabharata. Tell us about that…
The way forward for the millennial audience is not in retelling history, but in the way it is told. You need to romanticise history, let imagination take flight and put it in the context of the future. Our problem is that we don’t think big. I am sick and tired of everyone saying this film earned Rs 100-Rs 200 crore over the last 10 years. They should now cross Rs 500 crore, otherwise there’s no reason to make films. Baahubali showed us the potential of our market. It was a scaled-up film, but at heart, it had a strong story.

The Immortal Ashwatthama will reunite you with Uri: The Surgical Strike director Aditya Dhar and lead Vicky Kaushal. Any pressure?
We will have a blast. Aditya has such clarity of vision and Vicky is a stupendous, versatile actor. And I have the ability to look at things three years from now. The film is in prep now and will roll next year.

You also team up with Kangana Ranaut on Tejas, set against the backdrop of the Indian Air Force.
We wanted to make a film on the army so Uri happened. Tejas is not a sequel to Uri, because that was a true story and this isn’t. But it is on the same lines and on the same scale.

Will Taapsee Pannu’s sports drama, Rashmi Rocket, lose money due to the delay in production?
Prep cost is never a waste, we will be more ready when we start. Safety is the priority now.

Abhishek Chaubey is writing the biopic on hockey legend Dhyan Chand…
(Cuts in) We have 12 films in planning right now, we’ll discuss them at the right time.

Any change in your outlook as a producer in the post-Covid era?
I will be more aggressive now.

Rachana Dubey (BOMBY TIMES; October 8, 2019)

Call it Vijaya Dashami, Bijoya, or Dussehra — the festival is celebrated with fervour in most parts of India. The day underlines the victory of good over evil — a theme that has been translated on celluloid often by Bollywood filmmakers.

For decades, filmmakers have used Durga Pujo, Navratri and Dussehra celebrations as motifs or as backdrops for key events in their narratives. Visuals from the festive season have often lent themselves for the creation of dance numbers, memorable scenes and sequences, replete with symbolism.

Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani (2012) features one of the most well-recalled, and what is considered to be one of the best amalgamations of Durga Puja into a story. The film unfolds in Kolkata, which is gearing up for the pujo, and culminates on dashami (last day of Durga puja), drawing parallels between the festival’s message — the victory of good over evil — and the story, as Bidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) defeats her husband’s murderer.

Bring this up and Sujoy says, “The thought behind the sequence was to highlight the strength and will of a mother. I’m a huge fan of Maa Durga, because in this form of hers, she’s always with her children. For Bengalis around the world, she’s a mother — we equate her to a human being. In Kahaani, I wanted to depict that Maa arrives once a year, she listens to you and solves your problems. We threaded in a lot of stuff. The build up-to the story is pretty much like the build-up to Bijoya. The climax blended beautifully with the culmination of the pujos.”

Pradeep Sarkar’s Parineeta (2005), adapted from the eponymous Bengali novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, uses Durga Puja as a backdrop on two crucial occasions — once to show the love and care Lolita (Vidya Balan) has for Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan) and then to show Shekhar’s jealousy towards Lolita’s friendship with Girish (Sanjay Dutt). The film also uses the traditional dhunuchi dance as a tool for the narrative.

The filmmaker shares, “Durga Puja has often been used as a backdrop in films or as a part of the story. It only makes sense to include the festivities when there is some meaning to it. During pujo, you meet people and interact with them, and relationships also blossom. That is how we also used it in the film.”

Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor (2012) briefly takes the audience pandal-hopping during Durga Puja in Delhi, to show the growing proximity between Vicky (Ayushmann Khurrana) and Ashima (Yami Gautam). The Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor-starrer, Gunday (2014), also saw the two actors sway to beats of dhols against the backdrop of Durga puja in the song Jashn-e-Ishqa.


FILMMAKERS SPIN THE NARRATIVE AROUND THE FESTIVAL
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s screen adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas (2002) shows Paro (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) and Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit-Nene) meeting and even dancing together. Paro is seen at Chandramukhi’s kotha, asking for mitti of her aangan to make an idol of Maa Durga for her baadi. This marks the beginning of a crucial turn in the story when Paro is forbidden from stepping out of her house.

The story of Akshay Kumar’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) peaks in the thick of Navratri in a village in North India. The film’s climax, which sets off on ashtami, underlining the theme of good winning over evil, shows Vidya Balan as the revengeful dancer Monjulika, who is seeking protishodh (revenge) for her lover’s death. Raveena Tandon played a victim of marital violence in Kalpana Lajmi’s Daman (2001). Her character Durga vanquishes her patriarchal tormentor on dashami, freeing herself from bondage.

Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera (2013) opens in a traditional zamindar’s baadi celebrating Durga Puja. Sonakshi Sinha, as Paakhi, is seen enjoying a jatra with her friend in the house. Here, the celebration is more of a backdrop to show how festivals were seen as symbols of power and prestige in society those days. Elaborating on it, writer Bhavani Iyer, who wrote the screenplay, shares, “I don’t think one really sets out to put a festival into the story. A lot depends on the milieu or the household you set the story in. Maa embodies vengeance and righteous anger, and if that fits into a story, then, Durga Puja could become an ideal motif. We used pujo to define the Bengal of the 1960s when zamindari was breathing its last. The jatra that Sonakshi is watching in the film, depicts her family’s power and stronghold in a fast-changing society. It was metaphoric.”

In Kurukshetra (2000), Sanjay Dutt, who plays an honest cop, is seen wiping out evil politicians, while Dussehra firecrackers drown out the sound of gun-shots, symbolising the defeat of modern-day Raavans. Ram Leela, which is an integral part of Navratri celebrations, was also used effectively in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6 (2009). While depicting the glorious celebrations at Delhi’s Ramleela Maidan, the narrative also delves into frictions within men from the neighbourhood.

Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades (2004) also featured a Ramleela performance by debutant Gayatri Joshi. Here, it was a philosophical discourse — a conversation between Raavan and Sita that tries to highlight the difference between the evil and good. In a face-off sequence in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja (2001), Madhuri Dixit-Nene, while playing Sita, refuses to go through an agnipariksha to prove her chastity.

More recently, Akshay Kumar, revealing his upcoming Laxmmi Bomb avatar, put out a picture with the backdrop of Maa Durga, embodying power and anger. Talking about the reducing number of instances of films using the festival as a motif, writer Bhavani Iyer says, “Kahaani was one of those films that integrated the festival so beautifully into the story. Even Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ritualistic semblance of the celebrations in Devdas was a sight. Storytelling, in the last few years, has changed. The pujas are extravagant celebrations as opposed to the lives that we lead today, which are so clinical. We’ve also begun to write our stories in a more realistic manner. That doesn’t always allow us to merge festivals and rituals with the stories.”

IN THE BYGONE ERA...
Amitabh Bachchan and Rakhee’s 1981 Bengali-Hindi bilingual Anushandhan, made in Hindi as Barsaat Ki Ek Raat, used Durga as the metaphor of triumph. As a police officer, Amitabh is seen investigating an evil father-son duo. He is even seen playing drums during Durga pujo and beating Amjad Khan at a competition.

On the other hand, is Shakti Samanta’s Amar Prem (1972), featuring Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Mehra and Sharmila Tagore. The film had a brief, but an extremely powerful depiction of Durga pujo, which appears at the end of the film. While Nandu (Vinod) takes Pushpa (Sharmila), his foster mother, home, we see protimas of Maa Durga being taken to pandals, hinting at mahalaya. The symbolic reference to Maa’s homecoming was hard for anyone to miss.

Apart from Hindi films, Bengali movies have evidently underlined the spirit of Durga Pujas through their stories. Pather Panchali (1955), Devi (1960), Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (1973), Joi Baba Felunath (1979), Utsab (2000; right), Debipaksha (2004), Antarmahal (2005; below), Durga Sohay (2017), Bishorjan (2017) and Uma (2018) are some films where important parts of the narrative have been woven around the festival. Writer-director of the Bengali film, Mahalaya, Soumik Sen says, “The pujos have been used as motifs in Bengali cinema very often. Utsab, Joi Baba Felunath, Bishorjon (2017), Nayak (1966) and Bela Seshe (2015) are some examples of how differently and beautifully the festival has been merged into the story. In Hindi films, Kahaani and Devdas come to the mind when one thinks of weaving in the celebrations of Durga Pujo into the story. The difference lies in the way the festival has found its place across popular cultures from the West to the East.”

Filmmaker Ramkamal Mukherjee’s Season’s Greetings (2018), a homage to filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, uses a motif of children visiting parents for the Durga Puja in his film — something Ghosh’s Utsab also employed. Ramkamal says, “The festival has different meanings and style of celebrations across the country. For Bengalis, it’s about Maa’s homecoming, symbolically depicted as a mother, daughter, wife or a sister in films. I’ve shown this in my film, too, to doff my hat to someone who crafted bold stories and broke all taboos — something that Maa also embodies.”

Sarita A Tanwar (DNA; May 29, 2017)

Sushant Singh Rajput has delivered a massive hit with M S Dhoni - The Untold Story, but for some reason he is not spoken about in the same breath as Varun Dhawan, Arjun Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra. He did not have a dream launch. He made his debut with Kai Po Che, with an ensemble cast. He won Best Debut that year. He did two films after that all with YRF (Shuddh Desi Romance and Byomkesh Bakshy). Then, he had a fallout with Aditya Chopra and walked out of Paani after waiting for almost a year. He was told his career would be over. He delivered his first Rs 100 crore film with his next release. However, the industry is not acknowledging and celebrating his success like it should. And he understands this. He accepts it and perhaps, secretly enjoys it. Because that allows him to be the dark horse. Here he talks about the i chapter, the nepotism in the industry and “being Shah Rukh Khan” in his head. Read on for excerpts...

Working on your sixth film. Are you still trying to come to terms with the film industry?
I think it’s easy to understand. People talk about nepotism but I think we are just touching the subject superficially. We are just saying that outsiders find it hard to break into the industry and insiders get it easy, that’s the first thing. No one talks about how your successes and your failures are perceived and that is nepotism, too. If I do something and that’s going and you say...

Please explain..
It is not that insiders are not good, they are. But I also did something which is good but you would just punctuate that hundreds of times and you justify it. And the insiders would do anything and so nobody would question them because he or she was good. But that doesn’t take away from somebody else who was good, too. But that is there and just the room of that faith, hear what I am saying. Some failures are easily forgotten, some aren’t.

You mean that your failures are highlighted more, and your success is not celebrated as much?
I think all this is also nepotism. Anybody who says it isn’t, is either very ignorant or very powerful. That is it. I have no complaints because I have done five films that I wanted to do, I have signed some as well. Not that I didn’t have options... so, I can’t complain. But at the same time, I know that no matter how good friends I am with somebody, if my films don’t work...

...you won’t get offered their films, but you will get invited to their parties, correct?
(Smiles) Yes, that is something that has started happened lately. I am invited to parties. So I finally feel that I’ve arrived. I wouldn’t name him, but this maker just offered me a film after we had a tiff last year and just because my last film did well. It is such simple mathematics and there is nothing wrong to it. It is a money-making thing and if you are saleable — I don’t mean to emphasise that we need to network to get work — but it is expected and sometimes necessary.

SRK and you both hail from Delhi, both made it big after working on TV. Have you subconciously imbibed his style? You are accused of having a Shah Rukh Khan hangover.
Really? If it is working, I won’t complain. (Pauses) If that is true, then it is probably because we had the same acting teacher — Barry John. In fact, I got a chance to finally do a dance song in Raabta and I did his signature — arms spread — move. I’ve always wanted to do it. Because I am a big Shah Rukh fan. He’s the only reason I started.

You have often said that.
I remember coming to Swades ka set, to get his autograph, and I couldn’t meet him unfortunately. I had come from Delhi, he was shooting in Mumbai And a few years later I was dancing behind him when I was with Shiamak and I said, ‘Hi’ and he said ‘Hi’ back. And then, a few years later, when I made my debut, we were at the IIFA, he called me to his room, we sat there for 45 minutes and chatted. I was like, ‘This is it. I can’t get beyond this.’

You and SRK also have the Aditya Chopra connection. Though your experience hasn’t been as nice as his.  Do you regret waiting for so many years for Paani to take off?
Yes. It was very unfortunate because I remember saying no to many films I really wanted to do at that point of time, just because I trusted somebody who was telling me, ‘No matter what, the film will be made.’ I can also understand that I am a newcomer and a filmmaker is putting in so much money, so he will have doubts, but it doesn’t take away the fact that if you decide not to do that film, you cannot not give me another film just because you know I have said no to so many films. That didn’t happen.

Did you really struggle with the decision to walk out of the film?
No, that was a very easy decision. I see few changes in myself that have happened in last four years. I am completely fearless about the consequences. I just don’t care. You will have a great time working with me because there are things I am sure of — I am professional and if you ask me to do nine things, I will do 10. You will be happy, but if it’s anything else that doesn’t contribute to what we are trying to do, then I will not take that sh*t, no matter how big or small you are. As simple as that. I think everybody who works with me, knows this and appreciates this.

How long did you wait for Paani to take off?
That was 11 months of the second year since making a debut. I did three films before that in one year and then I just had one year of doing nothing. But I shouldn’t say I wasn’t doing anything, because I was spending time with Shekhar and that did a lot for me. After waiting for nine months, in the tenth month, I got to know that it won’t happen. I waited for another month, so I would get another film but it didn’t happen. I said, ‘Fine! Let’s find out for myself.’

Did you feel you’ve burnt your bridges with him?
That’s for him to decide.

Shraddha Kapoor also had a problem with Aditya Chopra, but he recently offered her Thugs Of Hindostan. So maybe he doesn’t have that ego, and he will approach you if he has a film for you.
If he offers me a film that he thinks I will do a good job in, I will do it.

Shah Rukh Khan on being Shah Rukh Khan and the perks and pains that come with it
Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; November 2, 2016)

By every measure, Shah Rukh Khan’s success story is a victory for the common man who dreams and aspires to be greater than his stead. Starting in Bollywood as an outsider and retaining his superstar status for over two decades, the stories of his life has filled several books. The last time we met, he had said, “I think common people have bigger dreams and they work harder to achieve them. I am the common man’s dream.” When I last met SRK, he spoke about everything from his stardom, his priorities and what it means to be a superstar. Now, as he turns 51 today, his words are a mirror to the man and indeed, the superstar himself. Read on...

Have your priorities changed?
No, not really. I think I am working as hard as I used to in the first seven-eight months or years of my career. I am a mannered man, a stylised actor who genuinely plays to the gallery. I am all that. There’s nothing wrong in that. If you become Shah Rukh by being all that, you should never have any complaints.

Has stardom ever hit you?
Negatively? No! It has hit me in the most positive way. Stardom has caressed me. I say it to everyone who tells me, ‘Aapki privacy nahi hai. Aapko acha nahi lagta kabhi ki beach mein jaake pav bhaji khao ya kahi ghumne nikal jao?’ Nahi! I don’t want to be normal at all. I want a crowd outside my house waving out to me with sheer love. I love it more than having pav bhaji in public. I have no qualms being a superstar. I have been fortunate enough to live like a star for the last 25 years. I would like to die as a star, too. Main bahut clear hoon is maamle mein. Mujhe aur kuch nahi banna.

But as a star, is there anything you really miss doing?
I can do everything. There’s nothing I cannot do. As a matter of fact, Allah’s been kind. I get to do more things than other people can do. So I have missed nothing being a superstar. Also, there’s a sense of being alone — which everyone has — from a director to an actor. I like being reclusive at times. But I was made to be a star. There’s no other way I could have lived my life.

But have your desires changed over the years?
When you start off, you desire to have good money, you want fame, you wish to keep your family well-off. You want awards, rewards... tammanayein khatam hi nahi hoti hai. But having been here for 25 years now, you realise that the only thing you want to do is to make people smile.

Somewhere down the line, it’s not guilt, but I have a feeling that I’ve been given a lot more than I deserve. I need to return it before it ends. It’s something I keep telling everyone that the best way to go would be ‘Roll camera, action.. Oh shit! He’s gone’. So, I want to keep on working till the last day because when I don’t work, I feel tired (Smiles).

We don’t have superstars anymore. Do you think that the audience has closed doors to the idea of having one?
Superstardom is more like a fourth wall and is an extremely different concept. You cannot work towards getting the stardom. Yes, there a lot of managers and management companies which help you make the right moves and say the right things, but you need to get a different kind of love to be a superstar. The kind of love that is not tangible and explainable. If that was explainable, we could create so many superstars in the industry. I do think that media tends to figure that out by labelling an actor as the next superstar. I think it takes many years of work for one to attain superstardom. It takes months for one film to reach somewhere. I don’t know if Salman, Aamir and I are the last superstars and I don’t think any actor can explain the phenomena of being a superstar. There is no explanation for that.

Do you ever fear losing out on your stardom?
I have an inane sense of strange confidence in my stardom. But I know what you are saying. It’s reality... it can and it will happen eventually. But I have protected myself from that reality. I live in a zone which is my own created reality. Yeah, I live in a false world, but I just believe that no one can take away my stardom. (Smiles) I don’t think I am worthy of all the love I get from the people. Neither do I deserve all the criticism that comes my way. They are two extremes.

When you try doing something new, at times it doesn’t work. Does that bother you?
I have no understanding of what people think of my work. All that I understand is I am an extremely selfless creative person. I want people to be happy with what I do. So if I go wrong, I go wrong. And it’s never the numbers. I remember when Chak De! India released, I was in London. Everyone told me that Chak De! was going to be the biggest flop. Ditto for My Name Is Khan. They felt it wouldn’t work because we didn’t have a catchy song in it. That’s absolutely all right. I don’t work for posterity or prosperity. I work only on things I like doing and if I don’t like doing something, I can’t move or shift that feeling to you. If an artist is feeling it’s not good enough, he will never be able to convince the audience of the same. The beauty of art is you have to go wrong more often than right to get it right eventually. When Chak De! released, I remember driving down Andheri and there was nobody there to watch the film. When I did Swades, someone in America told me, ‘How can you do a film like this? It’s making no noise’. Those things will keep happening. Again seven or eight years down the line, people will say why aren’t you doing a Chak De! or a Swades and who knows, they might be the same people who rejected the film at first. People forget that when I started off, I did Baazigar, I did Darr. In Deewana, I was launched as ‘the thing’. I see some of the other films on television and I wonder how I made it so big. (Laughs) I have the ability to make memorable choices.