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ENTERTAINMENT: CINEMA
Q&A: SAI PARANJPYE
"We Still Lack Technical Finesse"
 Sai
Paranjpye is in her second term as the chairperson of the Children's Film
Society, India. She has directed six feature films and two children's
films. Bhago Bhoot is her third after a gap of 25 years.
Q. What was the inspiration for Bhago Bhoot?
A. The story has been with me for a long time. I wanted to make something
that was anti-superstition.
Q. How will the film compete with the technical
wizardry of animation?
A.
Sometimes reverse attraction works. Sci-fi films are fine but I felt the
time was ripe for this simple tale which reveals the magic of the forest
and the natural environment to an urban child.
Q. How can this venture be made commercially
viable?
A.
Children's films like Shyam Shroff's Halo have proved commercial successes.
It is difficult to market a children's film but the CFSI hopes that theatres
in Mumbai will consider screening our films at least once a week.
Q. What do you think of the present standard
of children's films?
A. We have made great progress
with the content of children's films but we still lack technical finesse
and the budgets to compete internationally.
Did You Know?
 Jeetendra
is making a directorial debut with his home production. And he has chosen
his son Tusshar for the lead role. Remember the other father-son project?
When Rakesh Roshan made a film with son Hrithik, he helped a star to emerge.
Box
Office
 Rahul
*
Weeks in release: 1
Collections: Rs 10,49,234
Prakash Jha's story about a little boy's angst failed due to unnecessary
and irrelevant masala.
Censor *
Weeks in release: 1
Collections: Rs 7,25,306
Dev Anand lives up to his tradition of delivering flops.
Good * * *
Average * *
Flop *
Mumbai collections only
Source: Trade Magazines
Different
Strokes
 After
gambling with the abstract, painter M.F. Husain is now trying his hand
with a musical titled Do Kadam Chal Kar Dekho. And though his loyalties
still lie with Madhuri Dixit, sensuous Sushmita Sen will have to do for
now.
Husain is considering Sen to play a double role
(though not of lost twins) opposite Rahul Khanna. "One protagonist
lives in Jaisalmer and the other in the Czech Republic and Sushmita fits
both parts perfectly,'' says Husain.
Do Kadam ... will be shot extensively in these
places and in Hyderabad. "I'm trying my hand at story-telling through
music,'' he adds. And the director has managed to rope in A.R. Rahman
for the venture.
And Khanna's selling point? His "aristocrat"
look.
Risking It
 Alternative
sexuality as a theme usually doesn't go down well with Indian audiences.
But that's not stopping ad filmmaker Shamin Desai from going ahead with
Auroville 316. Shot on a shoe-string budget in the Great Rann of Kutch,
it is targeted at a select metro audience and is slated to do the rounds
of international film festivals soon. Meghana Reddy, Kelly Dorji (both
making their silver screen debut) and Dodo Bhujwala form a triumvirate-Dorji
and Bhujwala are partners-in search of answers to their existentialist
angst. Insists director Desai: "Don't categorise this as a gay film.
The movie touches upon the human condition, not just the homosexual one."
Well, hopefully the audience will see it that way too.
--Himanshi Dhawan and Natasha Israni
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