‘Dibakar was the model producer’

...one who never came to the sets. This and more interesting nuggets were revealed by team Titli when they visited our office for a casual chat session.

When team Titli dropped in at The Asian Age office on a hot Wednesday afternoon, they seemed to have one agenda in mind — to begin the session with some South Indian snacks. After a brief lunch at the pantry, Ranvir Shorey, the film’s director Kanu Behl, debutantes Shivani Raghuvanshi and Amit Sial settled down to talk about their film that hits theatres today. It was only after some time that producer Dibakar Banerjee made an entry.

He was not his usual chatty self, as he mentioned that he needed to continue working, while pulling out his laptop. Later that evening the filmmaker returned his National Award at a press conference as part of the FTII protest.

However, during the chat he let out no hint about his plans for the latter half of the day. It was Kanu and Ranvir who held the fort while speaking about their experience of making the film. We bring you some excerpts from the afternoon:

Ranvir, the last time you worked with Dibakar was in Khosla Ka Ghosla. Have things changed Ranvir: When I worked with him in Khosla Ka Ghosla, Dibakar was a director. Ten years later today he is the producer of the film. In Khosla he was an ideal director: ever so patient, understanding and articulate. And in Titli, he has been a model producer — he never came on the sets! It was so hot in Delhi that he preferred to do his work in air-conditioned interiors, right from pre-production to post-production. (Laughs). Kanu, you have assisted Dibakar in LSD: Love, Sex Aur Dhokha, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!. How has your experience been Kanu: It has been an interesting journey. I started working on Oye Lucky in 2007 and it had happened accidentally. Dibakar was looking for an editor at that time and my editor HOD needed his films, documentaries and DVDs to be sent to Dibakar. I was coming to Mumbai and I was also in the middle of editing a documentary back then. I needed a feedback on it. Dibakar saw what I shot and he liked my work. I had seen Khosla before and I really liked the movie. Then onwards our association strengthened. Oye Lucky was supposed to shot in Delhi and Dibakar saw what I shot. When the film was about to finish, he had the idea for LSD. I thought nothing like that was attempted before and I got to be a part of that too. The journey has been such that I never stopped to think where we are headed. We just kept doing interesting work one after the other and it naturally progressed. How did the casting happen of the film, especially for the debutante Shivani Kanu: This happened mostly out of desperation. We had been looking for Neelu for close to six-seven weeks and we were panicking because we were just two weeks away from the principal photography and we still hadn’t found our Neelu yet. Shivani had been doing workshops for four weeks. One of the methods Atul (casting director) and me use is to audition multiple actors for a character. That benefited us. Honestly, I wasn’t really convinced about her because she had never done anything previously and was very raw. Our search was still on but she had no idea about that. We wanted to put in that the fear of God in her so she could start acting. There was just one key moment when her button flipped and her inner Kareena came out! We had to do a lot to get her there but later we didn’t have to do anything because she was so instinctive. She just shuts her eyes and she is in that moment. How did you convince Aditya Chopra for this film Dibakar: Actually I didn’t. Adi knew about the script. He had read the draft and he was very enthusiastic. He has wanted to make the film since the time he read the script. He doesn’t know what it will do but everything from Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! to Band Baaja Baraat is an experiment. It’s only after the release, will you know if it turns out to be a success or a failure. When I met Adi, he was like, ‘With you I am going to push the niche because the niche will become mainstream tomorrow and this is the only way forward’. We should be supremely optimistic about giving it a try to tweak the audience in a certain way. Were you sceptical about making Titli since your films have a very niche audience Dibakar: It all depends on what you make a film for. Shanghai was made and marketed in a budget, which nobody could have imagined, so it wasn’t a loss making film ultimately. Byomkesh though it had an underwhelming financial performance but the film was made at the minuscule, which is one-third or one-fourth of any normal big budget Bollywood period film. That’s the only way to ensure that the film is niche: actually it’s the budget which commensurate the niche. Titli is one of the cheapest films of this year. In fact it has the tiniest marketing budget. We are marketing totally in digital space there is no outdoors, no paid TV, except the listing during the week of release.

Kanu: We were so busy in making the film. We never expected to have a Cannes screening and all that. It’s an Indian film and the story is very rooted in our milieu. What was that ‘Kareena’ thing in you, which Kanu mentioned earlier Shivani: I haven’t studied cinema or learnt acting. Initially, the problem was, whatever I had seen on television, I did exactly the same in my audition. I was very dramatic. When I used to get the script, I used to learn in a click. I use to wonder that why my co-stars are engrossed in the script, and trying to get into a ‘zone’. I was trying to learn the process and was performing superficially.

This one time, Kanu threw the script at me and shouted that he was done with me and that he cannot help it. I was new to the city and I was taking it very lightly. I had a very casual approach towards auditioning. I was happy that I had a free tour on the productions’ money. They pampered me a lot in my first trip but when I came for the second time, things were different for me.

There was a lot of pressure since we had to start within the next 10-15 days. It was the first time that I had read such a serious script. I read and rehearsed and next day I performed quite well and was complimented for it. Till the time I couldn’t relate to the character, I couldn’t perform. Even I don’t enjoy watching a film till I relate to it. Every person has different layers.

We are one kind with our loved ones, friends and family. We react differently to situations. Neelu too has many shades. Initially, I didn’t agree with the character flow but eventually I understood the mindset. I was very judgmental but as the shooting progressed, I understood several things.