Fakir’s story turned Surapur into a filmmaker
Debutante filmmaker Anand Surapur said that his Fakir of Venice was drawn from real life and the unique nature of the story made him think of making it a full-length feature film. “Sanjay Sami (known to have worked on hit Hollywood projects) narrated this story about how Homi (Adjania) took a fakir to Venice. I got really interested in this story as I could not believe such an incident had actually occurred in real life.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the Jagran film fest, he also told about his journey of working with Farhan Akhtar and Annu Kapoor. He said, “Since me and Farhan were friends, I sent him the script and he really liked it. We did a reading together and then he came on board for the project. Farhan and Homi were friends and the character was close to home. He really did justice to the part. Annu ji is a mind-blowing actor. I did not want anyone to pity his character and he played the part with grace and dignity. He and Farhan are brilliant and they really complement each other.”
Surapur began his journey by making ad films under the banner of Phat Phish Productions and directed ad films for many top brands. He also directed several music videos that caught the viewers’ attention because of their unconventional visuals and execution. These include Bombay Vikings’ Kya Soorat Hai, Bally Sagoo’s Noorie and Saamne Yeh Kaun Aaya, a reinterpretation of the Randhir Kapoor and Jaya Bachchan starrer Jawani Diwani. He has also been into film production, having done films like Shashanka Ghosh’s Quick Gun Murugun and Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s Frozen.
He disagrees that the multiplicity of genres needs a radical change in approaches. “Well it’s the same creative process for ads, music videos and films, except that the length is different. In these films you have to hold the attention for a longer time, that’s the only difference. I personally did not feel much of a difference,” he said. He also talked about his future films, love is Blind and Quick Gun Murugan 2. “Thinking about the future is too tedious. So I take one day at a time.” But he is not going to stop making ad films and music videos as it generates his bread and butter.
After rave reviews, Doob goes on to win awards
This year has been very successful for Irrfan Khan with his movies making a mark in Bollywood as well as in international cinema. Irrfan Khan’s latest international venture, Mostafa Farooki’s Doob-No Bed of Roses recently had its world premiere at the Shanghai Film Festival and has just been screened at the 39th Moscow International Film Festival. It has already managed to grab appreciation much before its commercial release worldwide. The film has been awarded the prestigious Kommersant award which is given by a jury headed by Andrei Plakhov, Honorary President, International Federation of Film Critics.
The film and Irrfan’s performance has earned a great response from the audience. Hollywood Reporter gave out the first international review of the film and appreciated the actor saying, “It takes an actor of Irrfan Khan’s stature and magnetism to turn an intimate separation drama into something special and a writer-director like Bangladesh’s happy maverick Mostofa Sarwar Farooki to layer on subtleties and shades of meaning with realistic detachment that never slips into melodrama.”
Mostofa himself said, “Making No Bed of Roses was literally a no bed of roses for me. But I am very happy to see top international critics’ warm reviews of the film and I have almost forgotten all the troubles we went through. Now I am waiting for the film to release and reach its audience as soon as possible.”
Photos: Pankaj Kumar