Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra says his movies are perpetual and he lives with stories he narrates on screen. He chats with Divya Kaushik about casting his actors instinctively, cinema he grew up watching and his forthcoming musical Mirza Sahibaan
You will adore him for his honesty, like him for being blunt and respect him for his craft. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a man who believes in a process. There can’t be quick fixes for the director who believes in living with his movies, very much like they are his babies. He says, “I conceive the idea like a baby, nurture it and live with it always. It’s just that usually it is nine-month pregnancy, but my pregnancy period ranges between four to five years. That’s the time I take to deliver a final product. And my labour pain last for one year. I get completely absorbed in whatever I do. I am still living with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (BMB). I feel that movies are perpetual, they are not made for Fridays and Saturdays. At least, I don’t make them for Fridays and Saturdays. They are like a life-long thing for me.”
The director, whose last movie BMB has set new records of achievements in the industry, says that more than anything else the movie has opened more doors of opportunities for him to experiment. “I hate repeating myself. There’s no point in doing what I have already done. So I am glad that success of this film has added to my conviction of working on different stories in new ways,” said the director, who was recently here to receive National Award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. Since the beginning of the year, Mehra has been receiving honours at various platforms for the film but says National Award is an honour in true sense. “National Award is a true award. Other awards are popular, pulp awards, they are more like a celebration. This is a true honour and as a citizen of India it’s a humble experience to receive it. It is third time in a row that I am getting it, so I really feel I am the chosen one. There’s good cinema being made in so many languages and it’s a great feeling to be recognised for your work. I feel a little heartbroken because Milkha was a team effort. Everyone from our cameraman to costume designer and technicians did exemplary work in creating a different era. Technically, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was very difficult film and it is one of the finest product that we have today. The cast, be it Japtej Singh as young Milkha or Farhan, became the role itself, they were not actors. I was expecting honours to come their way also. But I understand jury has their own viewpoint,” added Mehra.
The director is known for giving most outstanding films to the industry. Be it Aks, Delhi 6 or Rang De Basanti (RDB), Mehra says that each film has been related to his life. “Subjects choose me, I never choose them. Whatever I have got in life, it comes out as a film. RDB was all about my college days. Aks was a story my maternal grandmother used to tell me. Delhi6 was the story of the place I grew up in, I was born in old Delhi. BMB is about my days in sports and in lajpat Nagar, when 1984 riots happened everybody spoke about the Partition and it is a refugee colony. People told me horror stories about Partition. Those stories stayed in my mind somewhere so I had to tell a story about Partition. Then I came across Milkha Singh autobiography. The sportsman in me came alive and also memories of Partition. And I made BMB. The idea is to tell a story that inspires me. The story has to interest and compell me to tell that story to the entire world. It should emotionally move me, only then I will be able to convey it to the people at large. It should make me laugh and cry. It should engulf me,” shared Mehra, who particularly likes V Shantaram, Bimal Roy and Spielberg films and “they subconsciously influence my art.”
Mehra has finished casting for his next Mirza Sahibaan and will start shooting in September. Harshvardhan Kapoor and Saiyami Kher have been chosen for the musical based on a folklore in Rajasthan.
“I have been working on the story. I live with it and the screenplay and the story tells me the kind of actors and characters I have to choose. If I have cast fresh faces that means they are the requirement of the story. If you will seeBMB, Japtej, Farhan and Divya Dutta, they all feel they were born for the role. I cast actors instinctively. I don’t analyse. When I feel correct about them I cast them,” he ended.