ALTBalaji
(digital platform) is your new baby and I read that you want to show your other
side with it. What is this other side of yours
ALTBalaji will give me the
creative expression which I haven't had since the longest time. In films, we
(Balaji Motion Pictures) aren't that big a brand and so we have to listen to a
lot of people. TV is fine, but it's so massy that you cant take every story to
the drawing rooms. On a digital platform, you can say whatever you want to say.
That's where it's
stemming from...
Yeah. TV is
something you can't see alone because most homes in our country still have one
TV set. But you do that on Apps don't you? At any given instant, five people in
a room are watching five different things on their mobile phone.
Indian entertainment audience is evolving and so are we at Balaji, with ALT
Balaji we are officially identifying our audience as individuals and not
groups/family.
Tell us about your shows on ALTBalaji...
The platform went
live on April 16 and
will offer over 250 hours of original programming. Some of the shows are The
Test Case, Boygiri, Romil and Jugal, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat, Bewaffa Sii Wafaa,
Dev DD. The shows are created and enacted by the best talent in the Indian
entertainment industry, including Nagesh Kukunoor, Juhi Chawla, Nimrat Kaur,
Rajkumar Rao, Hansal Mehta, Sakshi Tanwar, Ram Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Sameer
Soni, Yudhishtar Urs, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, and many more.
Image Source: tehelka
You are quite
edgy and you loved edgy stories, right?
We all are edgy. We are diferentf when we are alone, we are different when we
are with family, we are different when we are with with friends. But we get
branded by the work we do.
I am hearing a
lot of good things about your web series Romil and Jugal...
Frankly, I was planning it as a film. I hate it when people call gays as mamus and
guds and even some other Hindi names which scar you when you hear them. It's
high time we stop caricaturing gays, they are just nornal people with different
sexual preferences.
What's the kind
of response you've got for ALTBalaji so far?
The response is shocking. I have never had such an overwhelming response after
The Dirty Picture.
If you had made The Dirty Picture now, it may have got stuck at the Censor
table...
I don't blame the
Censors. We might be seeing it myopically and they see the larger picture. But
yeah, they should be a trifle less stringent.
TV Vs Web?
There is no TV Vs
Web Story. The story is Movies Vs Web. The web medium has will give a chance to say many sympathetric
stories. Once the web
becomes bigger, there will be no market for a certain kind of films, say in the
next 5 years...
Like which films?
The ones which
are not an experience. Every
film will be available on your phone, so the one which calls you to the
theatres might jolly well be good.
Image Source: india
You are so much a
phone person. Do you also get your daily news from the phone?
You know I stopped reading newspapers 10 years ago. Today, I get everything
from Facebook, Instagram and Google.
I had a very bad
2016, it just wasn't that my films (Flying Jatt, Great Grand Masti and Kya
Super Cool Hain Hum 3).didn't do well, it was also that my films leaked.
Nothing went right--- from piracy to censorship to box-office failures I had it
all. And them I felt that I needed time for introspection, but I'll definitely
come back albeit slowly.
We are a small
company, not a multi-national, I will get my creative expression through the
web till then. 6-10 films a year can't be done unless you have an international company
backing you.
Many studios around you closed down...
Yeah, but they shall still survive. I just can't. I dont have that financial
bandwith, I have earned every penny through TV. Films need a lot of things,
including the right names in the centre; it's a very big game.
Image Source: newpics
Over to Tusshar's
baby Laksshya...
(Smiles) I am a human being who recovered from a lot of pain last year because
of my nephew. I had many professional ups and downs last year. Television did
very well but films did not and that is very in your face because everyone
knows it did not do well. So, it just hits you more. But my nephew would just
suck out every bit of tension from me. People, when they used to talk about
their children, their eyes would light up. And he is not even my own child, he
is my nephew but it is magical. A magic happens when a child comes to a house
and as a kid grows, you grow with them and the small things become the big
things,
Would you like to have a baby?
My parents want me to but I don’t know if I am ready. I am too busy. So, I have
huge respect for women who manage both the home and their work. It’s superb
multi-tasking, kudos to them. At this present moment, I have to take out time
for a work-out. At 1’o clock, I am going for a walk. I need to plan my
life first before I plan to have a child.
But you told a section of the media
sometime back that you don't have the patience for marriage...
All my friends, who were married are now unmarried. With the amount of divorces
I have seen recently, I think I am the more patient one. Atleast, I waited for
it. I definitely know one thing, that I want a child but marriage, I don’t
know. I don’t have time for myself, if I get a couple of hours, I would like to
go to a spa. I look forward to a one-day vacation with friends. I love my work,
so I don’t crib. People tell me give it up if you have such a problem with it.
I won’t, I would get so bored. I’d rather be busy than bored.
Image Source: twitter/arjunk26
Half Girlfriend
hits theatres tomorrow.
Your gut feeling about it?
You are asking a producer who has given 5 flops what will happen to her next
film? I hear good buzz about it, and then I look down and pray. I have become
an ostrich. My confidence got a bit of beating last year.
Azhar was a good
film, so I don't know where I went wrong. Some of my films were not nice, and
some leaked! I have heard people telling me: Humne toh dekh li, hamare 8
tickets bach gaye!
Were you angry
last year? That throwing of phone...
I would be extremely angry at times, no doubt. But I mellowed down. I had
become very volatile and I won't deny that either. But then, I started looking
at the people on the roads and in hospitals.
And?
And I realised
that I can't be crying about flops.
We go back to
your new baby ALTBalaji and in fact conclude this chat with it. How many shows
will be seen on your ALT App?
Several shows and
I have the number which people can cater to.
Which is?
42 (Smiles).