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Our definition of heroes needs to change, but our definition of good cinema might already have, says Irrfan ' Hollywood could pose a serious threat if Bollywood does not provide better content.Chhoti si kahani thi, joh itni hit kari ki sochte rahe, yaar, yeh film ho sakti hai kya? We sort of explored it a little bit and then we thought yes, there is a film. It's the reality, reality of our country.There were certain important things that I want to address. Aisa nahin hai ki ab subject mil gaya toh film banao. Subject kis liye hai? Kya hai? Subject kar kya raha hai? Hum kyun banana chahte hain usko? Uske liye kuch cheezein thi important. There is a fact that we don't realise sometimes ' that a hero lies in every man and in every woman. And most of the times, 99% of the times we die, we perish before realising it.There is something lying inside, dormant, which could ignite, which could awaken at any point. But maybe aapke saath woh adversity nahin hui hai, woh inspiration aapke paas nahin aaya hai, maybe aapka realization nahin hua hai, maybe aapke filters kabhi khatm nahin hue hain ' the conditioning of human beings, usne hi aapko jakad ke rakha hai aur usi mein aap mar jate hain. And the other thing is the accountability of our system. Kisi bhi ek aam aadmi ke saath kuch hota hai, toh where does he go? The courts are so overloaded that hamara CJI gets emotional and breaks down in front of the PM. Where do we go?There are certain facts which are very, very, very disturbing, and it concerns everybody. So, this film addresses that and we could not find the title of the film till we were halfway through the film.Connotations wohi hain. Ki matlab jamura aur madaari ka khel hai. Zindagi mein kayi baar aap madaari hote hain, kayi baar jamure hote hain. That's how 'Madaari' came.Now, art films don't exist. What do you call art film? Where is the art film?READ ALSO:Main art film ki den nahin hoon, main aisi film ki den hoon jiski definition media ne dhundi nahin hai. It is now not about art, it was not about mainstream. What would you call ' Piku '? And ' Talvar '? There is art in 'Talvar'. A film which does not have songs, which does not make too much of noise, people start calling it art film, that is the tragedy of our times. This is a new kind of cinema which is emerging, and I think it has to pick up and it has to become bigger before Hollywood actually gulps you. Hollywood is coming with so much speed that you can't even understand!Yes! This is the first time that has happened. And another first is that Hindi version ka business zyada tha. Can you see the appetite of the audience which is desperately wanting to be engaged? That is where our film industry is on the back foot, where it is often not able to provide.I would like to add to that. See, Hollywood is America and the soul of America is marketing. The whole nation is built on marketing, so they understand it. And baaki unki koi bhi industry kuch bhi kar rahi ho, but the game (sports) industry and cinema industry ' they have captured it and specialised in it the world over. And many big countries, industries have been gulped by them. European cinema ko poora Hollywood kha gaya hai ' UK khatm ho gaya, France khatm ho gaya, Italy... Their kind of craft knows how to engage people.Hamare yahan actors star nahin hain. Wahan actors stars hamesha se rahe hain. Chahe woh Clint Eastwood ho, Al Pacino ho, Robert De Niro ho ya Brando ho. Jo hamare yahan tha pehle.Yes, and then there was decadence. After Rajesh Khanna there was a strange kind of degeneration, with films mostly creating heroes indulging in self-pity, who make melodrama about self-pity, about how much pain he is in, that is when Govinda and all happened. You can't see that in isolation. That happened because theatre was dying down, VCR was introduced, middle class was not coming. The audience was gone. There was a particular kind of audience, and cinema was catering to them. The whole atmosphere was like that.Because the consumer was like that. People only liked that. Once, during a shoot, Bhatt sahab aaye, chillaye mere par ' 'Arey yaar Irrfan, gandi acting kar, spoon-feed them. Spoon-feed .Yeh achhi acting se nahin chalega, dukan band ho jayegi'.'Kasoor' ' pehli film thi yeh. And he had a point. He was addressing that audience, he has a great communication with that audience that's not interested in nuances. Cinema was not capturing those nuances, so there was this space for nuances.Fortunately, now, the audience is exposed to world cinema. They want similar things from India. That's why Talvar, that's why Piku. All these films are being lapped up by the audience. 4 crore ki film 70 crore ka business kar rahi hai. Aur jahan tak Hollywood ke craft ka sawaal hai ' even when they make films for kids, it's not just the kids who can enjoy it, even parents can. Like Jurassic World or Jungle Book. We have not made any successful horror film or a successful children's film. We are still lagging behind.Yes. This is the best time for a producer to be alert and just pick up talent and take a little bit of risk. When we had Madaari's script with us, I could not go to the corporates. I went to one or two corporates, and I understood that we will not be able to convince them what potential this film has. That's because they are evaluating a film through a formula they have, and they don't know how to look beyond that. That's why I came on as a producer for the film. I thought, let's make it and then we will go to the corporates.The system is changing. You will be surprised by the way things will change. The way Priyanka has suddenly gone there, Deepika has gone there ' things are moving in a very interesting direction as far as India is concerned.No, no. It is not easy. It is fifty times more difficult to break into Hollywood than it is here. An actor who gets one or two auditions there is exhilarated. Just two auditions. If he gets them, he thinks he is there. Uss industry mein break in karna is not easy. I don't think that they are looking at India and saying aao ji aao.I don't know. I have seen people ' some famous stars also, I don't want to name people ' who have spent so much time trying. Chappalein ghis gayin, as we say, but kuch nahin, nothing. Kuch actresses do-do saal tak wahan padi huin hain aur kuch dhele ka kaam nahin mila. How something happens ' there or here ' there is no formula to it. That is the mystery of cinema!I'd like to quote something joh humein bachpan mein kaha gaya tha ' izzat aur zillat aap ke haath mein nahin hai.Waqt deta hai, nature deta hai, ya kaun deta hai, pata nahin... Lekin woh aap ke haath mein nahin hai. Aur main iss mein believe karta hoon. Isliye I cannot take the credit for anything. I am just trying to make sense out of this existence which has been imposed upon me. I did not choose it.Yeh joh art hai, iska kuch percentage sahi jaata hai, dekhne wala hona chahiye. Like a doctor who is able to diagnose accurately because he knows how to assess you. But it is suicidal to depend on it. It deprives you of facing life spontaneously. Sometimes, what is predicted happens, sometimes it doesn't happen. But to take life spontaneously, to be prepared for whatever is going to happen ' that enriches you. If you know, or think you know, or if I knew ki ab se yeh hoga, 2000 se aisa hoga, aur waisa hua ' it hasn't done good to me. It shows some kind of insecurity within me. I am insecure, which is why I depend on that. It shows that I don't trust the process of life. That's a folly, that's a weakness.Exactly! And if the ball is an outswinger ' and you were told it will be an outswinger ' aur aap ne uss pe shot maar diya, toh aap ko aage, kahin na kahin, apni ability pe question mark rahega. Ki woh faculty joh meri thi, agar main judge kar ke maarta, woh exercise nahin hui.Yes, that is exactly how I thought in my naive mind then.I had to break out of that mould I was in. I don't know where it was from ' but the desire I had was to escape from the perception people had of me. That was the basic desire. In my school days, I used to dislike how people looked at me, what they thought of me. I wanted to escape that. I think that made me come out of my shell and express myself. You are looking at me in a particular way ' and I am not that. I am something else. What am I ' I don't know.Yeah, yeah. That's why cricket. That's why acting. That's why trying to find out what I wanted to be. Once I was watching an Ashok Kumar film ' Mamata. And I was fascinated by the role of a barrister, and I thought that I'll become a barrister. I was always looking for things that would take me away from where I was.Pata nahin yeh interview mein bolna chahiye ki nahin... Jab main teenager thaa, hamare bagal mein ek showroom hua karta thaa, Jaipur mein. Wahan angrez aaya karte thay. Unki airconditioned bus hua karti thi. Mera cousin wahan neeche khada hua karta thaa kabhi jab woh buses ja rahi hoti thi, aur aise hi khade ho ke hi-hello kiya karta tha tourists ko ' uska intention hua karta thaa ki woh shayad use kuch de dein. And I was part of it! I still remember that time ' my mental makeup. How we were fascinated by these people and they looked like they were from another planet. I just wanted to get away from there, from being that.Nahin, tab woh khayal hi nahin aaya thaa. I was too young. Maine Bachchan sahab ki shooting dekhi thi. And I felt very bad, I felt like a nobody. Ghar aa kar maine yeh incident apni mother ko bataya. She said 'Mujhe bhi aisa laga thaa. Amer Fort mein Dara Singh ki kisi film ki shooting chal rahi thi, aur mujhe bahut bura laga tha wahan jaane ke baad'. Toh main yeh identify kar paaya ki humari feelings ek jaisi hain ' magar woh kyun hai aisi, mujhe samajh nahin aaya.Uske baad main zindagi mein kabhi shooting dekhne nahin gaya. Zindagi mein kabhi kisi se autograph nahin maanga. Ek baar maangne gaya thaa, (iconic Pakistani batsman) Zaheer Abbas se. Main bhaga bhaga gaya thaa, kisi tarah se mauka mil gaya thaa, friendly match tha, itni strict security nahin thi.And he just looked at me ' and kept walking.Uss ke baad se I have never approached anyone for an autograph.Sometimes you don't have the time, sometimes you're not in the mood. But I really feel bad sometimes, ki maine kyun mana kar diya...Abhi do din pehle main Lokhandwala mein ghoom raha thaa raat ko, ek auto ruka aur ek ladka utar ke aisey aaya (arms outstretched) ki maine socha kya ho gaya, koi bam phodne aaya hai kya. He ran towards me. And when he reached me, I saw he was exuberant. 'Sir, sir, photograph...' I was in a different mood. I said, 'Yaar, tu haath mila le, bhai tu photograph rehne de'. Uske chehre ka rang badla aisa ek second mein ' woh main bhool nahin sakta. Ab mujhe lagta hai maine gale kyun nahin lagaya.What irritates you sometimes is that people don't value themselves sometimes... bahut saste mein jaise apne ko... Aur photo bhi kheench gaya tab bhi satisfaction nahin hai, selfie chahiye. Iss pravritti se thodi uljhan hoti hai. All the time one is not in a zone to do all this.(Laughs) I don't exactly remember it. I have got things very gradually. Raaton raat meri zindagi kabhi tabdeel nahin hui. Jab main shuru mein pehchana jaane laga toh apne characters ke naam se pehchana jaata thaa. They didn't know my name. Yeh daur chalta raha koi 7-8 saal jab main television kar raha thaa. Mujhe Kumar ke naam se jaante thay, Badrinath (from Chandrakanta) ke naam se jaante thay. Sometimes people would say, 'Arey, dekh dekh woh TV mein aata hai na!' But you realise ki yaar naam ke liye to nahin aaye thay.READ ALSO:Yes, I still think that. One day I will want to be free from this disease, from this desire. Where fame doesn't matter. Where just experiencing life and being okay with it is enough. Right now, you can say I am a patient of the disease. In the very beginning, that was all I wanted when I thought of being an actor ' ki bas main famous ho jaun.Comparatively, I think I am. But our industry is such that we keep propelling ourselves in new directions. I don't have formulas, but I have landmarks to achieve. To do the kind of films that I want to do. To engage audiences in a larger way. To redefine things. That is my basic concern ' things need to be redefined...It pains me when a film actor or a cricketer is a youth icon. I don't have anything against them. They are great entertainers; they are useful to the society. They contribute to people's lives. But they are not heroes. We haven't redefined heroes. Heroes are different people. Heroes are people who sacrifice their own concerns and do something bigger, who change people's lives. We film stars and cricketers shouldn't be aspirational in such a big way for the healthy growth of the society. It's a sign of consumerism at its extreme. That's why I find it so cool and so hip to see that photograph of the women scientists of ISRO celebrating a launch. That's heroism. That's cool, that's hip! Lekin main agar kahin se udhaar le kar, kuch bana ke, thodi der ke liye aapka time pass kara de raha hoon, just because I am famous, you aspire to become me ' that's not cool, that's pathetic.