“I was scared to approach Rakeshji”- Anurag Basu

Before starting the shoot for Kites, film maker Anurag Basu was apprehensive about reaching out to his producer Rakesh Roshan when it came to matters concerned with the commercials. Maker of medium budget films, Anurag Basu was handling a gigantic subject like Kites for the first time. No wonder he was unsure whether his demands around mounting the film on a huge scale would be met in entirety.

"Once the film was written, we knew that it would require an elaborate shooting schedule. Normally a film's shooting gets over in 45-60 days; sometimes even lesser. However, the canvas of Kites had turned out to be so big that I was sure it wouldn't cost less than 85-90 days", says Basu who has made a career out of making medium budget films like Life In A Metro, Gangster and Murder, all of which were wrapped up in quick time.
However, this was not going to be the case for Kites and naturally Basu was apprehensive.

"I was scared to approach Rakeshji", Basu brings on a smile, "However, to my pleasant surprise he told me that it would actually take 110 days if we were to shoot as per the vision that we had for Kites. He just pampered me and gave me a free hand when it came to resources."

There have been rumours though that there was quite some interference that came his way during the shooting of the film.

"I am amused when people say that", says Basu, "What is being termed as interference were mainly creative discussions. Also, all of that happened only during the writing process, not the shooting. Once on sets, I had complete freedom to do things the way they were written."

He doesn't deny the fact though that Kites has indeed turned out to be an extremely expensive affair.

"If you add up the budget of all my films and double up the sum, it may just about come near to what the making of Kites has cost", laughs Basu, "If you ask me about recovery then, well, Mr. Rakesh Roshan would be able to explain better. Mujhe commercials samajh nahi aate. All I want is that audience ko maza aana chahiye. I know for sure that Kites is the most entertaining film I have ever made."