If one simply goes by the title, Bejoy Nambiar’s debut Hindi film, ‘Shaitan’, is misleading, reminiscent of a 90’s cheesy horror flick. But Nambiar is quick to dismiss any element of “horror” in this directorial venture. “No way is it related to horror. It’s an edge-of-the-seat thriller about fighting your inner demons. It’s definitely not a run-of-the-mill Bollywood film. It’s based on a real-life incident I read in the newspaper,” he says.
His back story
It’s Nambiar’s esteemed company that adds depth to his claim – the movie is co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, the director known for his aversion to “typical” Hindi cinema. Then there is his association with Mani Ratnam, whom he assisted in Guru and Raavan, that’s enough to add mileage to his CV. For this Mumbai born and bred 32-year-old, films were a childhood passion and he adored everyone from Satyajit Rai, Padmarajan, and Ritwik Ghatak to Francis Ford Coppola. The first thing he did after completing his MBA from the UK was to pen ten movie scripts.
His biggest breakthrough came in the form of his eight-minute long short film, reflections, where he managed to rope in Malayalam actor, Mohanlal. “That was a time when I was struggling to meet Mani sir. But that one film convinced him to give me the job,” recalls Nambiar, who later made many short films, including the much-talked about 40-minute short Malayalam film, ‘Rahu’.
The big break
His second break came when he won the film making reality show from Sony Pix, ‘Gateway to Hollywood’, in 2008. “Ashok Amritraj liked the one liner story idea and asked me to develop that into a movie script. But Ashok soon lost interest in it and I decided to make it into a Hindi film,” says the writer-director, who learnt that even his association with Ratnam was not enough to make that big Bollywood entry.
“I banged on every producer’s door with my script. It was not just a bound script, but I had a CD of music and the entire look of the film. But no one came forward as there were no stars in it nor did I belong to a big production house,” he recalls.
Things started to look up once the main lead, Kalki Koelchin, who thought the film might get shelved due to financial problems, showed the script to producer-director and then beau Anurag Kashyap. “Once Anurag read the script, he wanted to co-produce it,” says Nambiar.
Another interesting aspect about the film is its “one-of-a-kind” music, created by six new composers, ranging from a death metal group to a newbie like Prashant Pillai. Extensively shot in Mumbai, the film, says Nambiar, involved an all-south Indian crew, notable among them, Sreekar Prasad, for the editing. And while the filmmaker is still busy with last minute touches to his debut, he knows he is “determined to succeed in Bollywood”.
‘Shaitan’ is scheduled to release on June 17.