Filmmaker and producer Anubhav Sinha spoke to Divya Kaushik about working with first-time directors and investing in their vision and ideas
This is not one of the most-discussed project from Anubhav Sinha’s kitty but being the first film to be released under his production house, Benaras Mediaworks, Warning is special to the director and producer. The other film that has been in news for quite some time now, produced by Sinha, is Madhuri Dixit starrer Gulaab Gang. And Warning recently was in news for an engaging trailer that was released couple of days back and Shah Rukh Khan sending his good wishes for the success of Warning to Sinha on Twitter. The filmmaker teamed up with SRK for Ra.One.
Warning is directed by first-time director Gurmeett Singh and features seven actors, none of them is a star. Manjari Phadnis and Varun Sharma are the part of the cast. Sinha is known for taking out the best from the young actors. He worked with the fresh star cast in his film Tum Bin, that is known to be the only hit delivered by actor Priyanshu Chatterjee. “It is fun to work with fresh ideas and young talent. The reason I decided to start as a producer was because as a director I came across so many people with brilliant ideas and a director cannot make every film. So I thought may be as a producer I will be able to work with diverse ideas. Warning is a 3D underwater film and I call it a survival film about seven friends in a life-threatening situation,” said Sinha.
He added that being a director himself, it was important for him to decide not to encroach in another director’s territory as a producer. “I am working mostly with first time directors and I trust their vision completely. I do not contribute to the way they see a film. As a director I know the film is in my hands and as a producer I maintain distance. Even on issues like casting I let the director have his freedom and I do not interfere. My only motive is to give new ideas and people a chance. As a filmmaker I have my own ideas and I would want to work on them independently. At present, I have already completed three scripts and by next year I would start making one of them for sure,” informed the director.
With promotional strategies getting innovative and changing market demands, the production model too has changed. Warning, being a technical film required research and an additional budget. “It was a difficult film to set up since a lot of technicalities are involved and I do not compromise with the quality. As far as the production model is concerned, it is becoming difficult to come out with the film in a restricted budget. The promotional cost is generally decided in advance, but it differs from film to film. Gulaab Gang, for example, is a different film and promotional strategies and cost will be different,” said the filmmaker, who does not want to get into producing only a certain kind of cinema. “I enjoy variety and I want colours on my palette. It’s boring to be doing one kind of cinema and particularly at present, there is so much scope to do different things in Bollywood,” he added.
After Warning, the director is looking forward to his awaited project Gulaab Gang, which will release by the end of this year.