FILM INTERVIEW: NAGESH KUKUNOOR
Film Director Challenges Bollywood with Heartfelt, Sensitive Drama
With a Hindi title that translates into “Hopes” in English, actor-turned-director Nagesh Kukunoor is hoping his cameo appearance in the Bollywood release of Aashayein, the very film he directed, will help satisfy his cravings of being in front of the camera. A Percept Picture Company and T-Series production releasing on August 27th and starring John Abraham and Sonal Seghal, Nagesh — who appeared in Dor, 3 Deewarein, Rockford, Bollywood Calling, and Hyderabad Blues — is certainly hopeful his drama genre film about a confused and compulsive gambler will also win with audiences — unlike his last two productions of 8×10 Tasveer and Bombay to Bangkok.
“I am doing a cameo in Aashayein, but it is very, very small. After 3 Deewarein, where I truly had to test myself, I haven’t done anything significant as an actor. Now I feel that itch sort of returning,” Nagesh told the press during an interview in Mumbai, adding that his cameo in his own film will perhaps serve as a stepping stone to greater roles in the future. “Next year I am going to attempt something and plunge into a role full-time.”
A former chemical engineer who made a living doing as such in Atlanta, Nagesh, 43, returned to India more than a decade ago to explore his passion for cinema. His exploratory passion landed him an opportunity to helm Hyderabad Blues, the successful, small-budget film where the director also made a cameo.
He may want to explore bigger and better roles, but Nagesh is not sure he is seeking a leading role.
“There are several scripts that I’ve written — a love story, a sports movie, and a horror movie. I don’t know which one will take off first,” he said during his chat with the media. “I don’t know if I’d cast myself in the lead because what happened with Hyderabad Blues was more of a necessity. Otherwise, I’d like to be more of an ensemble player. I have never seen myself in the lead. If someone else decides to cast me, that would be a different story.”
Whether or not offers of a lead role (or something similar) actually land at his feet, Nagesh just wants to focus on Aashayein, which releases this upcoming weekend (August 27th) and tells the tale of a compulsive gambler (John Abraham) who is informed he only has 90 days to live shortly after winning a large fortune. Through self-exploration, Abraham’s character, Rahul Sharma, rediscovers life.
Shot entirely in the South Indian cities of Pondicherry and Hyderabad, Nagesh hopes audiences will hear the film’s apparent lesson: life is too short so appreciate the finite time we have on Earth.
“In the process of the film, it is a reminder for both the audience and myself that life is finite, so let’s learn to live it now,” he humbly shared with the press.
That same sense of humility seemed to carry the day for Nagesh in another sense — he did not accept monetary compensation for the film that took nearly two years to shoot. Just the same, John Abraham offered his services for free as well.
“The actual delay has been for a year and eight months, and the reason for that was differences between the producer, Percept Pictures, and distributors, Big Pictures,” Nagesh explained to the press about the delay, adding that both he and John strongly believed in the script to deal with the delays and lack of payment. “Both of us believed in the material so strongly that, in order to make it work, we didn’t take money.”
Such passion came through during production, and as Aashayein prepares to hit the big screen this weekend, Nagesh hopes audiences will experience that love and devotion as the film plays in theaters — especially with John losing an estimated 35 pounds during the production in order to give his character dramatic weight and realism.
“I shot the movie almost sequentially so that the change is visible as the character evolves,” Nagesh explained about John’s weight loss during the production, as the physical transformation makes Rahul Sharma’s struggles that much more believable.
Nagesh further went on to explain that he approached John to play the lead role for two very specific reasons — to give him an opportunity to do something he has never done before, and because the director believed the boyfriend of Bipasha Basu was able to make Rahul Sharma more real than any other Bollywood actor.
“(We wanted to) cast John in something he’s never done before. He is known as this hunk — this dude. To take him and make him do something which makes the audience go, ‘Oh my God,’ was very exciting,” Nagesh told the press. “Second, John’s honesty as a person is literally written on his face. I felt very strongly that if I could tap into that and bring it out on screen, I’d be fine and get my job done.”
With Aashayein ready to release in theaters worldwide on Friday, Nagesh also “hopes” he will tap into his own talents both on and off the screen in order to do the best job he can possibly do, and audiences will chime in with their respective judgments this weekend with Aashayein and, prospectively, when his two other productions, Yeh Hausla and a Kishore Kumar biopic, are released.
Until judgment is passed, Nagesh will be holding his breath and trying not to think too much about his cameo appearances.
Aashayein opens in theaters and multiplexes worldwide on August 27th.
