Interview: I loved watching action films since childhood, there are other people to romance- Tigmanshu Dhulia

It is being said that Bollywood is making films off the ground, that’s why Bollywood films are not working. You work on grassroots stories, what do you have to say about this? Is this the only reason?
See, to some extent, the talk of the ground stories is true. But I believe it is not that this is the only reason. Different types of films have been made all the time. Films like Ganga Jamuna, Mother India were linked to the land, but other films were made along with it. Dil Chahta Hai was like the story of urban city boys, but that too lasted. I think a film is either good or bad. If it is good, it will work, if it is bad, no one will see. There are some reasons behind the film not working. I have grown up watching Amit ji’s (Amitabh Bachchan) films when the era of art films started. We grew up in that era. At that time there was no other means of entertainment. Once upon a time there used to be a circus for 6 months. Then because of this, some mediocre or bad films also used to run. In today’s era, the options have become more. Bad movies have filtered through so many options. Now people watch only those movies which are good.

There are a lot of gangs, bullets, politics in your stories, is this your attachment to this genre, or is there some other reason behind it?
(laughs) I don’t know but it must have happened automatically. Since childhood, I was fond of watching such films in which there is a fight. I don’t know why I got hooked on it, I love characters that challenge authority. The boundaries that have been drawn in the society that one has to stand like this, sit like this, do this and don’t do that, the character tries to cross these things, I enjoy showing that struggle and showing it. When we ourselves were in NSD, we used to do a lot of strikes etc. Whatever we thought was wrong, we used to oppose it. But never anarchy, though seen it happen. (Laughs) Whenever I’ve done something out of the box, people haven’t liked it. By the way, there are other people who make films like love, romance. I had made Milan Talkies but it did not work.

You had worked a lot with actor Imran Khan. Now his son Babil Khan has also made his debut. What do you think about his work? Do you plan to work with Babil someday?
I haven’t seen his film, so can’t say anything about it. As far as working with him is concerned, I would absolutely love to work with him. If you ever get such a chance, you will definitely do it. I will definitely work with him.

Pathan did well but the films that followed didn’t do much? What do you think, are people not able to afford cinema?
You would know that when Kovid was going on, people used to rent even the password of the OTT platform. People were taking his money. When this can happen, then think that the ticket of the film is very expensive. It might not matter to you and me, but someone who is doing a job of 25-30 thousand in a city, has two children and a wife, then spending 1000-1500 on a film for him would definitely make a difference. . Another big reason is traffic. Leave aside the big cities, which are 5-10 minutes away in a small town, today it takes you 45 minutes to know there. People think who will go to the cinema in traffic, when the film will come on OTT then they will watch it. Thirdly, cinemagoers do not have to sell movie tickets, they have to sell tickets for samosas, popcorn, drinks. They don’t care about the running of the film.

In the summer season and how did the idea of ​​web series summer come to your mind?
(Laughs) When we started making this series, it was not known that Garmi would release in summer, otherwise I would have tried my best to release it in winter. I wanted to know what the youth of today are thinking, what are the problems and what are the intentions of the youth. And this thing cannot be understood sitting in Mumbai. Big cities have their own concepts, different methods. I thought that I have made films on youth and youth politics, my first film was Haasil. Then I thought that I should grope for ‘achieve’. I started shooting for Haasil in 2000 and it released in 2003. Now 22-23 years have passed. Time has changed, new thinking, new technology has come, what has been its effect, he started asking people about that. At that time I felt that I should make a web series now. So the atmosphere is ‘achieved’ but the story is new.

You shot in Allahabad, which is your hometown, how easy or challenging was that?
Going to Allahabad and shooting there meant that I was familiar with the place. The locations of Allahabad are very untouched, which have not been explored much. Shooting has started there for the last few years. I had also shot for Haasil in Allahabad, but I could not shoot as much for the university or college there. So that was one month. So I went to the places I know about. We are not even mentioning the name of Allahabad in the series. This is a fictional city. So there were no challenges, but it was fun. There in the university everyone respected me as a senior. Got a lot of love from the students, teachers, vice-chancellor there.

We have seen a lot of mixed forms of student, politics, crime in a film or web series, your series is also based around it, so how is it different from the rest?
The story is not so important on OTT, there the atmosphere is important. To the best of my ability, in films the emphasis is on the story, as they have less time. Now songs are also being removed from films. I don’t know which OTT stories are good, in fact OTT stories are also great but those series run on the atmosphere and not on the stories. The world in which you are setting the story matters. The web series which will show good to the world will be good.