Television's wonderwoman Ashvini Yardi is inspired by filmmakers like Woody Allen. She tells Karan Bharadwaj she wants her production house to be a breeding ground for young filmmakers with refreshing ideas
She reached at the top of her game, changed the rules and one fine day, just gave it up all. Reason: things didn't look exciting as there were no challenges anymore.
Meeting Ashvini Yardi could be a revelation as well as inspiring. Dubbed as TV’s wonderwoman who took Colors to an unmatchable height, Yardi undoubtedly changed the idiot box forever with series of blockbuster soaps. However, with just one thought, she quit her hefty job and started production house Grazing Goats with Akshay Kumar. Films were at the back of her mind although she had no experience of the medium. “It was definitely a risky step,” she tells us with an infectious smile insisting she has always been like this. “I like to rediscover myself everyday. I don’t like to do things which stop exciting me. If there’s redundancy in my job, I prefer to find new things,” she says.
Yardi met Akshay Kumar during the shoot of a reality show and shared her idea of Grazing Goats. “Initially, he didn’t show any interest. later, he called me up and discussed the script of Oh My God!” she says adding, “I told him I want to create a platform where quality cinema could be made.”
But people around always criticised her for being the ‘path-breaker’. Even her family and friends doubted her ability when she introduced a show like Balika Vadhu. “A lot of people in the industry believed it won’t work. But I was committed to my idea. Even if it didn’t work, I wanted to try,” she says. Yardi’s sense of business is impeccable. But would you believe she couldn’t even utter a word in Hindi till her college daysIJ “All my TV shows were based in Hindi hinterland of Rajasthan, MP or UP. I may not have visited any of these sites but I always keep my research in place,” she says.
She happens to be the granddaughter of Babu Rao Pai, one of the founding members of India’s first studio called Prabhat Film Studios. “He used to produce films in 20s and 30s and discovered legends like Dev Anand and Guru Dutt. I never knew I would also be doing films since I spent so much of time in television,” she says. Grazing Goats’ maiden project OMG: Oh My God! turned out to be a blockbuster. It again was a unique film. “Our protagonist was Paresh Rawal, and not Akshay Kumar. I remember people mocking that we even thought of doing that film. But the success of OMG not only shut the critics but also reassured my belief in content-driven cinema,” she says.
Yardi believes that the audience has become smarter and there is a huge potential for good films. “They like mass entertainers but there’s an equal thirst for quality. look at the way Queen developed at the box office. It started on a slow note but reached at the top within a week. It also thrashed the ‘one-weekend gimmick’ of movie business,” she observes.
Her latest flick Fugly also performed well on the box office. “It catered to youth, who are asking for new things everyday. Thanks to the technology, Indian youth is forcing us to break the clutter,” she says. Yardi may have distanced herself from television but even the mention of daily shows excites her. Ask her about the fragmentation of the medium, she shares, “Niche channels are the way forward. But they need to Indianise the content. The reason why 24’s ratings didn’t go up is that they adapted the Western show quite loyally. If you are borrowing material, you need to make it suitable to our audience.” In her free time, she loves watching Woody Allen’s films. “There’s a subtle humour in his films. I can relate to them,” she says.