Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra forays into the genre of romance with Mirza Sahiba. The filmmaker talks to Karan Bhardwaj about his love for life, strengths and weaknesses and why screenplays have not evolved in Indian cinema
At a first sight, it’s difficult to fathom that Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra could be non-serious! The curly hair, nerdy glasses, unkempt beard, and an occasional suspicious grin on his face can make you conscious and alert in equal measure. But then, the filmmaker says he is a lover of life! “I love people, places and life. I fall in love very easily,” he says with a smile, almost easing our unnerving sense right in the beginning of the interaction.
As a college kid, he says he used to read romantic novels. The one that stayed with him forever was the saga of Mirza-Sahiba. So much that tragic story intrigued him that he has finally decided to translate it on celluloid. “Mirza-Sahiba is a contepmorarised folklore, based in our times. It’s my foray into romance and musical. It has got an amazing structure, the story being written by Gulzar. love has many shades. With this movie, I am trying to understand the grey shade of love since there’s no black and white,” he says.
With his past films like Aks, Delhi 6 and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Mehra has created a legacy for generations. However, Rang De Basanti continues to be his best work for many. There have been only a few movies which not only became cult but actually brought a revolution in the society. RDB was one of them. The movie shook the conscience of the youth who took to streets to express their anguish over multiple burning issues. Almost a decade later, the filmmaker has now decided to compile the shooting script in a book format Rang De Basanti: The Shooting Script (Om Books), and share some behind the camera anecdotes. “RDB is one movie which I feel must convert into literature. It contributed in unbelievable volumes to the nation. In the last 10 years, I have been reading a lot of screenplays of old movies. Unfortunately, we don’t have written material on the making of classics like Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Do Bigha Zamin and Johny Mera Naam. So I feel I should have written records of my own films. We have tried to make it interesting with pictures that even I had not come across while making the film,” says the filmmaker.
For him, RDB was a wake up call. “It showed me how powerful, how fulfilling cinema can be, both creatively and as a way of life. I learnt to assign a certain part of my life away to other causes. It has made me complete as a human being. So it has left an indelible mark on me and my psyche. After the film, I had the courage to attempt more mature subjects,” he says.
Mehra is an avid writer but ‘words’ are his weakness. Instead, he is more interested in screenplays and he has dedicated years to master the art. “Writing is a process and it takes time. I write my shooting scripts. I take time because I am not a born writer, words are not my strength. Screenplays are my holding point. So I take the story and write the screenplay myself. I strongly feel that screenplay is not an evolved art form in India. I invested more than five years to learn it. After Aks, I realised that I can deal with actors or technology but screenplay is one monster that needed to be understood. So I went to a Hollywood filmmaker, stayed in his house and learnt the writing part. Then I came back and wrote RDB,” he tells us.
Mehra’s movies always have the thread of nationalism and touched real issues plaguing the society. That’s possible because of his upbringing which happened in the politically volatile times in Delhi. He comes from old Delhi, which is the microcosm of India. He studied in Bal Bharti Air Force School and was exposed to airplanes, especially MIG planes. He got into DU immediately after the emergency when the youth was dabbling and frowning over the political matters in the campus. “I was always attached to the roots of developing India and its problems. Delhi had many refugee colonies. I used to visit them and hear horror stories of the Partition. As a student, I was also a sportsman and used to play cricket. I went up to Asian Games camp. We used to practice a lot in National Stadium where the folklore of Dhyan Chand, Milkha Singh were narrated. When I read Milkha Singh’s biography, I was moved. The reason I made the film on him was that he never gave up. I realised that if it inspired me, it could inspire million others. So I became the bridge to bring the legendary saga to the youngsters,” he says.