Director Subhash Ghai, who has earned the title of Bollywood’s ultimate showman owing to the grand nature of his epic films, doesn’t live up to that image. He isn’t flamboyant and is so artless that he began this interview with an earnest plea.
“I hope you support the new cast in Kaanchi because we need your wholehearted support. Please take your family to watch it and you won’t regret it,” said Ghai.
Had this suggestion come from any other director, you would have written it off as a cheeky hard-sell marketing technique, but not with Ghai. After 37 years in the industry, he’s yet to catch up with the latest trends in Bollywood film marketing (he doesn’t have an eager PR entourage backing him and shares his mobile number without any prompting) — he displayed no overt intention of getting up to speed with it.
“I am a director who will never work for money. People who believe in economics before art are free to function like that … I know money will follow me if I do a good job at making good cinema. What’s important is that I tell a great story, there’s some great music and melodrama,” said Ghai, who adds that he would never be able to make “contemporary, realistic cinema”.
Enter Kaanchi: The Unbreakable, a drama that introduces Bengali newcomer Mishti, which opens in UAE theatres this Thursday. Ghai’s brand of cinema is often an ode to Bollywood masala films filled with larger-than-life characters, amplified action and gut-wrenching drama. While he rarely tinkers with that formula, he is known to take risks while casting. Ghai has sculpted stars such as Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha and given them their acting breakthrough.
“I needed an actor with no star image or baggage. I went through 300 faces but there was something missing in all of them. Then I auditioned Mishti and she just fit the part perfectly. And I have no regrets since,” said Ghai, who has directed superstars such as Shah Rukh Khan (Pardes), Salman Khan (Yuvraaj) and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Taal).
“I needed a face who could convey my story well. Kaanchi is a girl from the mountains who travels to Mumbai for justice. She has the strength within and she takes on an uncrowned king of the country — without a revolver, without a knife. She destroys those corrupt rulers. It’s about youth and woman empowerment,” said Ghai.
The storyline of a woman’s fight against social injustice (remember Madhuri Dixit’s Gulaab Gang or Shakti: The Power starring Karishma Kapoor) may sound staid, but what Ghai lacks in novelty he makes up with his never-say-never spirit.
“I do not compare myself to anyone. I always tell people that I am senior in age but I have always been young in my films,” said Ghai. The 67-year-old filmmaker, who has given us hits including Khal Nayak, Pardes and Taal, has always gone against the grain.
“I went against the wishes of my financial management company who felt that I should sign up an established star for Kaanchi. But I stuck to what I believed in. Remember Pardes, they wanted Madhuri Dixit in the lead role but I went with Mahima Chaudhry,” said Ghai alluding to his 1997 blockbuster about a conservative Indian girl who travels to the United States to get married to a wealthy Indian boy. She was feisty and a paragon for Indian cultural values. In the end, she emerges a stronger woman when she decides to break up with him and marry her fiance’s good-hearted friend (Khan).
“The women in my films are always strong-minded. I have utmost respect for them and that shows in my films.”
It has been five years since he has rolled out a film. His recent films such as Yuvraaj starring Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor and cross-cultural romance Kisnaa were flops.
“The lesson I have learnt so far is that don’t be shaken because you have failed. Never lose your confidence and stick to your convictions … For me, every film is a new challenge and a new examination I am facing. I will remain a student of cinema and not the master of cinema.”
