Interview: Subhash Ghai
By: Simran Mody, India Correspondent
There is only so much drama a man can take, especially if that man is Bollywood filmmaker Subhash Ghai.
After trying is hand at directing two critically slammed Hindi drama films, such as Yuvvraaj and Black and White, Ghai is not switching back to the genre that made him a household name – comedy.
“My next film will be an entertaining, lighthearted comedy,” Ghai, 65, confessed in an interview with the press. “It is still in the scripting stages, which will take about six more months to complete.”
While he has been absent from the director’s chair in Yuvvraaj, which is marketed as a “musical extravaganza” starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, Ghai thinks he can get back to some of his lighter films that made him a go-to director in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Hero, Pardes and Taal.
The return to the director’s chair may actually be indirect pressure from financiers, as his affiliation with Mukta Arts (which produced the just-released Right Yaa Wrong) may cause him to wear more hats than merely the producer one he is currently content with wearing.
“My production house, Mukta Arts, is a private, limited company, and we have some commitments toward our investors,” Ghai noted to reporters about his prospects of directing new films. “So we need to keep producing movies, even though I might direct very few. I am kind of multi-tasking these days. I am director, producer, businessman, and teacher all at the same time.”
Still, the veteran filmmaker said he is not above expanding his repertoire beyond producing films, especially since the current climate in Bollywood allows for more diversity and experimentation.
“Bollywood is churning out more variety than ever these days. My company is producing all kinds of films, like Aitraaz, Iqbal and Kisna,” Ghai candidly said in his chat with the press, adding that the films he just listed are less dramatic and better produced to keep up with the times.
In other signs of Ghai trying to keep pace with what Bollywood fans seek in their films, the filmmaker said he is less concerned about attaching big names to his script and more in tune with having quality actors molding to what the script and story call for. The filmmaker proclaimed this, despite working with the likes of Shah Rukh Khan (in Pardes) and Hrithik Roshan (in Yaadein).
“I work with actors who follow the script instead of wanting the script to follow them. I don’t work with stars,” the acclaimed filmmaker frankly and emphatically stated. “Shah Rukh was not such a big star when I worked with him. I am producing a new film called Paschim Express, which is being made entirely by graduates from my (film) school.”
Indeed, Ghai’s bigger picture is to ambitiously be one step ahead of what fans of Hindi film seek in their favorite movies, whether it is comedy, drama, or any other genre. And that is no laughing matter.
