Amol Shegde speaks of his success

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Mumbai (UNI): Award winning director Amol Shegde who has directed Hindi, Marathi and the yet to be released Bhojpuri film, Ravi Kishen starring Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kishen, says talent is inherent in everybody, but it comes with a will to do something. Speaking to UNI, he said, ''One should be genuine, hardworking and honest so that creativity can be bought to the fore. On the other hand being genius is an exception.'' Besides 'being' a photojournalist by profession, who worked with a daily publication for two years, he was also a writer. He says it seems like a natural progression to graduate from journalism to directing movies.

He wrote his first Marathi film Aboli in 1993 which was a love triangle and by the end, the film turned out to be a psycho-drama starring Renuka Shahane and Shayaji Shinde. It won the Filmfare award for best actor and best actress. The film also won him the state government award for ''Best film'' and ''Best direction''. Now, an independent film maker since 12 years, Amol was assisting Manmohan Singh on camera before that.

He has also directed Hindi films like Gunah starring Dino Morea and Bipasha Basu and another film Naam Gum Jayega starring Dia Mirza, Mandira Bedi, Aryan Vaid and Rakesh Bapat. Of his two films, he says Gunah was a safe commission earner. It was released on the same day as Shakti starring Shah Rukh Khan, Nana Patekar and Karishma Kapoor and the film still did well despite strong opposition. Though Naam Gum Jayega did not do well commercially, it won critical acclaim as the film was based on the theme of multiple personalities. Amol is very hopeful of his Bhojpuri film Ravi Kishen as it has all the ingrediants of a successful movie.

He says he did a Bhojpuri film as Ravi Kishen is his friend. ''There was no reason why not to do it. Ravi has a rhythmic name like Ram Shyam so we made a film titled with two names. Though this is the first time that a film has been made on a hero's name, he says.

He claims that his experience as a photojournalist enriches him in the process of filmmaking. To put it in his words-''Experience is a great advantage as a photojournalist is exposed to situations which a normal person do not face.'' As a photojournalist, he mostly did street photography. At an exhibition held at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai one of his photos was selected for an international exhibition in Germany.

As a photojournalist he admires the works of Raghu Rai, S Paul, and Saby Fernandes. Amol's other projects are still in the pipeline. It is a big project and he feels it is too early to talk about it. Of his other projects, he says he cannot disclose anything until they are finalised.

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