It was his love for the filmmakers like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and Govind Nihalani and the films they made that prompted Prakash Bhagat to venture into making feature films. Why else would a person with pharmaceutical background jump into such a vastly-different field, which has unpredictable returns.
“I am huge fan of Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy and I have grown up watching their films, which to me are cinematic marvels. But those kinds of films are no more made as a result of which today’s generation is deprived of that kind of good cinema. Now it’s all numbers and box office,” rues Bhagat, whose first film Paharganj, is due to release this Friday (April 12).
Bhagat had been toying with the idea of making some content-oriented movie when, through a common friend, he got to know about Paharganj, the story written by Rakesh Ranjan Kumar. And he immediately fell for it. “I loved every bit of the narration done by Rakesh Ranjan, and decided to make a film on it,” he says.
Paharganj is a simple story of a foreign national Laura Costa (played by Spanish actress Lorena Franco) who comes to India looking for her missing boyfriend. “I wanted a fresh actress and someone who had never ever visited India to play the role. And Lorena fitted the bill,” he says.
“I understand filmmaking is a costly proposition but I am not looking at the commercial angle with this film. This movie has come from my heart’s desire of offering good quality cinema beyond Bollywood. I want to bring that old way of storytelling back into focus,” he says. But it’s not just this alone — Paharganj is also Bhagat’s way of encouraging independent writers, directors, filmmakers and small-time actors to associate for content-oriented quality cinema.
In fact, Paharganj has many actors from the Salaam Baalak Trust. Most of his crew members are freshers too. “The film’s music has been composed by newcomer Ajay Singha and my Director of Photography Vinayak Radhakrishnan was doing his Masters in cinematography from EICAR - The International Film and Television School in Paris when I got in touch with him,” he says. “Vinayak has brought his European sensibilities to this film, which I am sure people will enjoy,” he adds.
Bhagat isn’t against mainstream Bollywood movies. In fact, he already has a script ready for such a commercial movie (one on father-daughter relationship). What he says is that there should be a healthy mix of different kinds of films for the viewers to choose from. “My next Hindi film will be a typical Bollywood film for masses,” he says.
One for the vernaculars
Bhagat’s second film, his first in regional cinema is Malayalam movie Aniyan Kunjum Thannalayathu. This is the story of how Aniyankunju, a lazy village boy who leads a semi-luxurious life in a small town in central Kerala, ends up settling in US. This one is about to be released by April-end.