N Chandra speaks on Tezaab sequel and his 'style' of films

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
N Chandra is ready with his next film titled Breaking News. As against what the title suggests, it is not based on media. "People come home late and switch on the television to watch news channels, rather headlines. My film explores these headlines", explain N Chandra about the theme of his film. "We see lot of violence around and wonder how the world is going on. It gives a positive feeling when you see that something good comes out of these violent stories. Breaking News explores these stories behind those headlines. It's about redemption. It's about redeeming yourself". Breaking News stars Anupam Kher, Rajit Kapoor, Perizaad Zorabian and Seema Biswas.

Apart from Breaking News, he is also working on a script, which is a sequel to Tezaab. "I am working on couple of scripts and in coming two three months my next film should go on floors. I am making sequel of Tezaab, which is an extension of the earlier film. Though it will be a story of old characters, it will not have same characters. It is a sequel, so the story moves on to 15 years. It's an intense love story of the same genre." But this sequel wasn't something he had planned. He just wrote a story which found its connection with Tezaab. Says Chandra, "I wrote a story and after working on it, I realized that there are lot characteristics of Tejaab in it. It seemed like this story had prequel which was Tezaab. I am trying to sign a big actor for this film but I can't talk about them before I finalize them." he concludes.

When N Chandra makes a film, people expect more than the usual that our Hindi cinema offers. Remember his first film Ankush, an offbeat flick - rather a take on apathetic, corrupt and ugly face of the society. This film sparked a kind of revolutionary thought in every Indian's mind. Undoubtedly, this movie is close to his heart and recalling the experience of making Ankush he says, "Ankush is very close to my heart because it gave me recognition as a filmmaker. It gave me confidence, name and everything that I wanted at that point of time." He was overwhelmed by the response the film got. "I wasn't much known. Perhaps only the people who stayed in my area knew me. But when Ankush got released all over the nation, it received very good response from youth", recollects Chandra.

He reminisces, "We made that film in shoe string budget. I made that film in 12 lakhs. That too with 35 mm negative. Generally, with a budget like that you can't even shoot a 16mm film. But I managed because I myself was the editor and the director, so I had control over the footage and time. Everyone on the sets was motivated and charged. All were newcomers and they got a good platform. The credit goes to the entire team right from Nana Patekar, Nisha Palsikar, Madan Jain and my music director. Everybody believed in the film."

After giving hard-hitting films like Ankush, Pratighat and Tejasvini, Style and Xcuse Me were quite a surprise for the audiences who didn't really expect such comic capers from this serious filmmaker. Chandra amazed everyone with his slapstick comedy. "I have always been a disciple of Vijay Anand who has tried different genres. As a director, I always felt that I must try out all the genres of films and comedy was one genre I wanted to try. I know comedy and even in my serious films you will always find dark and sarcastic humor. I wasn't comfortable with any hard-hitting issues back then to make a film on, so I thought of comedy and that is how Style and Xcuse Me happened."

And finally, when we asked Mr. Chandra about his journey from a clapper boy to a filmmaker, he sounded happy about his artistic creativity. He feels that his journey was a bumpy ride. "There were lot of good and bad moments, sometime you loose money and gain too, but its all are part of life and mistakes makes you a better person. I don't have any regrets. Overall, it was a good experience and I am satisfied as a filmmaker" concludes N Chandra.

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