Interview: Madhur Bhandarkar
By: Simran Mody, India Correspondent
Even the most tantalizing jobs can become mundane and boring over time.
Such is the case with Madhur Bhandarkar. Sure, the filmmaker is a three-time National Film Award-winner and has served at the helm of some of the grittiest social drama that has earned him a legitimate place among the elite directors of Indian cinema.
Yet, despite working with the likes of Tabu in Chandni Bar, Mughda Godse in Jail, Priyanka Chopra in Fashion and Bipasha Basu in Corporate, Bhandarkar is ready for change.
“I have had a great journey, but I now want to do something different,” Bhandarkar said in an interview Sunday with Press Trust of India. “I love the work I have done (until) now, and I’m not saying I’m bored with it, but I think it is time I reinvented myself and did something different.”
For the time being, “something different” means working on a comedy and a children’s film, both remarkably different from his other more dramatic works of Chandni Bar, Fashion and Corporate – all of which relied on Bhandarkar’s signature style of casting a female as the lead protagonist.
By example, Bhandarkar’s debut project, Chandni Bar, featured Tabu as a bar dancer struggling to raise her two children in Mumbai.
Also, the recent release of Jail, which starred Godse and Neil Nitin Mukesh, was quite a grisly, realistic tale of life in the Indian penal system.
Quite the social commentaries in Chandni Bar and Jail, Bhandarkar abruptly switched gears in directing his first-ever comedy for his next film, which is yet to be named or cast.
“There is not much that I can reveal about the film,” the 41-year-old director candidly told PTI. “I am still working on the script, and the casting has not been decided. But I am excited about it, as it’s my first comedy.”
Of course, the switch from social drama to comedy will not come at the expense of intellect, as Bhandarkar still plans to buck the trend.
As Bollywood seems to be continuously doling out whimsical, nonsensical comedy by the boatloads, Bhandarkar will still maintain his intellectual edge, even in his comedic and youth-oriented projects.
“It is definitely not slapstick comedy — the brainless variety which we see nowadays — but something in the Hrishikesh Mukherjee genre,” the director said about his upcoming comedy project, adding that the film will definitely require audiences to keep their thinking-caps on when they walk into cinema halls to watch this movie.
While the switch from serious drama to comedy has spawned from a genuine case of complete boredom, Bhandarkar has been no stranger to controversy.
Recently, Priyanka Chopra was honored as Filmfare’s Best Actress in Bhandarkar’s 2008 film, Fashion. At the award ceremony, filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar took the microphone and said Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was more deserving of the Best Actress honor for her role in Jodhaa Akbar.
In response, Bhandarkar made several prickly comments about Gowarikar, yet went so far as to tell PTI the conflict between the two filmmakers is now water under the bridge.
“Ashutosh is a friend. He said something and I reacted to that, but all is well now,” Bhandarkar humbly told PTI.
The clash with Gowarikar is pale in comparison to the 2004 allegation of a casting-couch affair with Preeti Jain.
While he would not discuss matters of the case, last month, he was ordered by a Mumbai city court to stand trial in regards to the alleged situation with Jain, in which the actress claimed Bhandarkar promised her a role in a movie and marriage in exchange for sexual relations.
A hearing is scheduled for later this week.
As the controversies surrounding him are definitely far from boring, it will be interesting to see whether Bhandarkar can weather the storm and continue to mix things up on set, all while continuing to establish himself as one of Bollywood’s most acclaimed filmmakers.
