You have to make money in the business of film making        - Anurag Basu

Relaxed after helmed his costliest film and eagerly waiting for the response from New York which premiers ‘Kites’ on Sunday, hoping to score a hatrick with 3 consecutive hits, Anurag Basu believes that money has to be made in the business of film making. After having helmed a film which has been sold for 150 crores doesn,t mean that he has now become exclusive for big budgeters and shares with Jyothi Venkatesh that he is also open for small budget flicks and feels that a filmmaker who wants to make a film only for himself should rather try painting.

Q: Costliest film of yours till date?
A: I confess that Kites is the costliest film that I have ever made ever since I had started my career with Saaya. Till date, whether it was Saaya or Murder or for that matter Gangster or Life In A Metro, any of the film that I directed must not have touched more than four or six crores. I always used to plan the budget of my film even when I was writing the subject. When Rakesh Roshan asked me to direct Kites for him, I asked him what the budget of the film ought to be. However he told me very graciously not to think about the budget when I set out to write the subject of Kites.

Q: This time you had a bankable star who is luckily also the producers son, how easy/difficult it was for you to weave such a story?
A: Till Kites, I have always written the story first and thought of the casting only after the script was ready. However Kites was an exception to my rule. When Rakesh Roshan asked me whether I had a story for Hrithik Roshan, I was game immediately because I thought that I should now cash in on the fact that I had an International star like Hrithik Roshan. A director tends to be greedy when there are a lot of resources at his disposal when he sets out to make a film. I told myself not to let myself get into the flow, because it was very essential for me to maintain my grip on my story and not loose it because of opulence.

Q: Any Interference from Rakesh Roshan? 
A: There was no interference at all from a senior film maker like Rakesh Roshan though he is the producer of Kites. If you remember, I had walked out of my first film as a director when there was interference from Ekta Kapoor and my career could have come to a screeching halt if Mr Mahesh Bhatt had not come to my rescue at that point of time and I was on the right track with films like Saaya and Murder. All said and done, I’d state that it is only when there is a lot of discussion between the producer and the director that your script becomes fool proof.

Q: Did you cast Kangana Ranawat in Kites because you consider her your lucky mascot?
A: Though Kangana Ranawat has always been my lucky mascot right from the time that I had made Gangster with her, I did not consider her at all for Kites, because she has done bigger roles and I did not want to waste her in a small role in a film where already there were bigger roles for bigger stars like Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori. However, Kangana kept on calling me up and asking me why I was not casting her in my film. What touched me was the fact that she knew the length of the role and yet wanted to be a part of the film. I am grateful to her because she has done this only because of me.  Kangana allotted ten days for the rehearsals for the dance though she is only doing a guest appearance in the film.

Q: Why did you think of zeroing in on Barbara Mori?
A: We needed a Spanish actress in the romantic lead opposite Hrithik Roshan because it is an International cross culture love story. We could have cast a Russian girl or a Japanese girl too but then I have this weakness for Spanish girls like Salma Hayek. We had auditioned about a hundred and odd girls but decided to zero in on Barbara Mori when we saw Barbara Mori’s pictures on the internet and read all about her.  In fact, I made it a point to see her film My Brother’s Wife and was impressed by her performance in it. I also saw her film Inspiration

Q: Was it easy to convince Barbara to agree to do the film?
A: Rakesh Roshan and I with Hrithik Roshan went from India to Los Angeles, while Barbara Mori came from Mexico to Los Angeles. At that time, she knew just 10% of the English that she knows now and hence my narration of the subject went on for almost four and a half hours. By the time the narration as over both Rakeshji and I could feel that she could connect with the story. When the narration was over, she just said that she wanted to do the film and asked us to deal the rest with her manager. It was quite daring on the part of Barbara to have immediately  accepted our offer to be cast in Kites because she is a huge star in Mexico and Span. Barbara did not find singing and dancing in Hindi films very attractive. Before I met her, she had seen my film Life In A Metro to know what kid of a director I was and hence her knowledge of Bollywood was restricted to just that. When we showed her Jodha Akbar after she was on board, she found it to be too long.

Q: To what extent could you empathise with Barbara because she too had battled against cancer successfully like you?
A: I did not cast Barbara Mori just because she had also battled against cancer and emerged victorious like me. (Laughs). I did not know that she had fought against cancer till she confessed to me that she had a tough time managing to prevent her hair from falling because she has had to wage a battle with cancer. I told her that I too had a similar problem and did not have hair on my head till Gangster was being made. Our bonding became stronger after that since we could empathise with one another.

Q: Can you evaluate your growth as a filmmaker from Saaya till Kites?
A: I am learning with every film of mine. Till date I have made Saaya, Murder, Gangster and Life In A Metro. If every film that I have set out to make till date has been different from one another, the reason is that as a filmmaker I do not want to make films in my comfort zone and want to make films which push the envelope. Filmmaking is not at all a personal act. As a filmmaker, I cannot say that I make a film just to please myself. If you have to please yourself you can go ahead and do a painting, because you have to make money in the business of film making. It is the concept that decides the budget of the film. Just because I have made a big budget film like Kites it does not mean that I will henceforth not set out to make any film on a small budget. There are some subjects, which could be risky when you set out to make the films in big budgets and hence you have to continue to make small budget films too.

Q: Next
My next film tentatively titled Silence will be produced by UTV will have Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. It is true that I had talks with Katrina Kaif for the role in then film but things did not materialise. It is difficult to match the dates of the artistes these days and you have got to plan your film well in advance. After Silence I want to try my hand at a comedy because I enjoyed doing the comic scenes in Life In A Metro.