Vidhu Vinod Chopra is the biggest producer of the Hindi film industry today. But to make a Hollywood film, Broken Horses, the 40 years of experience didn’t help him. In a candid interview he says he had to unlearn everything. Excerpts:
Do you feel proud to be the first Indian to write, direct and produce a Hollywood film?
When I was making the film, I didn’t know if I was the first. What was driving me was my passion and dream and a kind of anger because Hollywood has always looked down upon us.
Why do you say so?
They feel we make over the top movies, sing songs, even our filmmakers say this. The fact is, when I fell in love for the first time, I had sung a Hindi song. I was in school then. When we die we sing bhajans, we sing when someone is born. It’s our culture and we are happy people. When we make cinema, it’s our culture that we communicate. That doesn’t mean that we can’t make other kind of movies, which is why Broken Horses was made. I have done what the Hollywood guys do, as good if not better.
The amount of money 3 Idiots made, any producer would have jumped to make a sequel. But you took off to the US for Broken Horses…
Even though I am the most successful producer, money has never driven me. My requirements are very simple. I can’t wear blazers for more than a minute, I am happy with my T-shirts. You need a house and a car, and I have both. I don’t throw parties or attend them. People don’t even call me, which is very nice. Cinema is the only thing that drives me. After 3 Idiots, I didn’t make 4 Idiots, I took five years off, went to Hollywood to make a point.
While making a film, don’t you ever think about the box office?
There are people whose strength comes from money. Their backbone and bank balance are connected. But the one who has a strong backbone, doesn’t thing about the money. Sadly, people today don’t look at a film, they only ask: Did it make Rs 100 crores? If a bad film touches the Rs 200 crore-mark, it becomes good? You pay to announce you are the biggest producer, and then you pick up that same paper and believe you indeed are. But haven’t you just paid for it?
Since the treatment of films is drastically different in Hollywood, what were the challenges you faced there?
I am 62 years old and I have done this for 40 years. I had to unlearn everything. Someone said, me making a film in America is like Quentin Tarantino making 1942: A Love Story in India. Uska baap bhi nahi bana sakta. I dare him to come here and make a film in Hindi.
Why did you get James Cameron and Alfonso Cuaron to endorse your film?
I didn’t do it. It happened. James was in Delhi and he took my script. He was in the US when he called me and said I want to meet the writer, for Avatar. Since I hadn’t put mine and Abhijat’s name of the script, he didn’t know that we had written it. I told him, had you known, you’d have been checking my spellings while saying what do these Bollywood guys know about Hollywood.
He started laughing and told me, ‘you are a f*****g genius. When he saw the film, before it got over he had already started clapping. And the clap was so loud, it seemed sarcastic. But he said, ‘My God! You did it!’ He spoke to me for 90 minutes. I was star struck. He is the most successful director in the world and he was praising my film. He is asking about the storyboard, the sound. As far as Alfonso us concerned, he is a friend. He had seen 1942: A Love Story, and his immediate reaction was overwhelming.
You are only producing films now. Wasn’t it tempting to direct a movie in between, instead of waiting for so many years?
The point is I am writing. It took me five years and 62 drafts to make Broken Horses. If I hadn’t spent that time and effort, it wouldn’t be as good a film. We edited PK for almost a year. Some people think I am arrogant. I am a humble man; if I were arrogant I would have released PK. But I suggested that let’s sit and improve it.
Off topic, everyone today loves Mission Kashmir... Why do you think it didn’t work then?
When I cast Hrithik, he was a nobody. Then he suddenly got this image of an entertainer, someone who dances, so maybe that didn’t help me. Van Gogh could never sell a painting, but that does not mean he was a bad painter. In his time, people never understood him. When I made films, people told me I was ahead of my time. I used to laugh thinking someday I will catch up with time. It has not bothered me. My father used to tell me galli ka mochi baana par best banna.
What is your vision for Vidhu Vinod Chopra Films? Do you plan to set up a studio?
I told Adi Chopra that if someone gave me his studio, I would go mad, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I honestly have no plans. Right now my plan is to have tea and popcorn and have a fabulous conversation with you. When I go to sleep, I don’t know if I will wake up. So today should be nice. Tomorrow will come tomorrow.
When Sunil Dutt died, I was one of the few to reach his house because Sanjay had called me. On his bed was a piece of paper; I still have it with me. The paper had plans of the entire month for Sunil Dutt. The last thing he read before he died was what he had to do the whole month. Planning I have never done and will never do. I will only plan a good film, that’s it.
You think the biggies in the film industry would give you honest feedback about your films?
We are small people with big egos. I can’t imagine a big movie star/director in India to come home and watch my film. But it has happened. Amitabh, after watching Lagey Raho Munnabhai, had sent me a bottle of champagne. Few people are there. But generally, we believe a lot in running down each other.
