Three things that garner the most eyeballs in India are weddings, cricket and Bollywood, and not particularly in that order. So, when Bollywood filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar was invited to talk about How Real is the Reel: Women in Bollywood, an event organised by FICCI-FLO at Federation House, New Delhi, members turned out in large numbers.
The conversation heralded by media veteran Amit Goel touched upon all aspects of Bhandarkar’s films. While Bhandarkar is stereotyped for making women-centric movies, he’s also credited for making realistic movies like Traffic Signal, Aan: Men at Work and Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji.
Very few know his maiden directorial venture, Trishakti (1999), had bombed at the box office, despite a strong star cast of Arshad Warsi, Sharad Kapoor and Milind Gunaji. “The success rate in the film industry is 0.1 per cent,” Bhandarkar says, adding you have to be thick-skinned to succeed in Bollywood. Bhandarkar’s second film Chandni Bar was a huge success though.
Thereon began his journey of realistic cinema that churned out huge hits like Satta, Page 3, Corporate, Fashion and Heroine among others. To gauge the life of a bar girl, Bhandarkar says he visited around 60 dance bars and even spent a few nights outside these bars to observe the behaviour of bar girls and their customers. Quite a few producers he approached wanted him to include item songs in it but he didn’t relent, knowing this could turn his movie into a raunchy one and defeat the very purpose of his making the film. “Most of my films have scenes that I have lifted from real life and incorporated in the reel,” he admits.
Has society become that decadent? “Films still filter many things happening in society. The reality is much gorier – like what they show in TV serials, Crime Patrol and Saavdhan India,” he says, avoiding a direct answer. Asked about his next venture, with a deadpan he says, “Bollywood wives would be an interesting subject to make a film on.”