The trailer of Sujoy Ghosh's upcoming Bengali short film Ahalya starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Radhika Apte and Tota Roy Chowdhury is out. Last night, we had a chat with him. The shy and reticent filmmaker was ready to talk. Excerpts from the chat that followed:
Tell us something about your new short film Ahalya.
Ahalya is a 14-minute thriller which I did mainly because it gave me a chance to work with Soumitra Chatterjee who is an iconic actor, but the principal idea was to create something which was challenging (pauses).
Please continue...
I was always interested in mythology and I decided to take one story from Ramayan, which is a great book of history in terms of content.There is no money involved in short films, and the best part of Ahalya was that it got my entire Kahaani team excited.
But we never thought that we would make a trailer out of it. However, Ravi Padda and Binny Padda who made the Kahaani trailer said that this film of mine would be no exception. After that, Clinton Cerejo (known for Background score of Kahaani) said that he would love to do its music. Everything just fell into place.
How was it working with the Padma Bhushan reciepient Soumitra Chatterjee?
Mr.Chatterjee has got everything- Padma Shri, Dadasaheb Phalke... He is an institution by himself. I always wanted to work with two people- Amitabh Bachchan and with Soumitra Chatterjee. It is very tough to cast Mr Chatterjee as a hero in a bigger film because right now I don't have a script like that. How I wish I had one!
So when I had this opportunity to make a hero out of him for 10 minutes, I said to myself 'Why not?'. Frankly speaking, I would term it as 'God's gift to Sujoy Ghosh'.
Why did you choose Radhika Apte for Ahalya?
Radhika can be a very normal 'gaon ki ladki' like how she's looking in Mountain Man, but at the same time if you allow her she can transform to look so radically different. I needed somebody who is one of us but yet incredibly seductive.A lot of people who have seen the trailer have in fact called up to ask: Hey, who is that girl in Ahalya?
So was Radhika comfortable speaking Bengali in the film?
I have noticed that when people like a script, inshallah they put a lot of efforts for the film. So you don't need to guide them on everything, they put in so much of hard work that a director's task becomes relatively easy. I remember Radhika used to sit and learn Bengali and then dub for hours and hours, so I used to remind her that she is doing a short film and not a feature film. Well... what more can I say about her?
What's more challenging? Directing a commercial film or a short film?
Short film, any day. For a 14-minute story you need a beginning and an end, and importantly you need a full circle so that you make your audience understand your film. Above all, you have to raise some questions so that the film stays with the viewers.
'Ahalya is a deadly game you can't escape', can you throw some light on this line which you've used in it?
There's the catch. I would give away the story then.
Is Ahalya going to release in different languages?
No. If something is good, the language doesn't matter. I am getting a terrific response, something similar to the one I received during Kahaani.
You also tweeted 'Film chahe long ho ya short release pe G utni hi fatti hai', so how nervous are you for Ahalya?
I am very nervous.
The interview will be incomplete if we don't discuss your Kahaani's leading lady, Vidya Balan. In her exclusive interview with SpotboyE.com, she had said: "Sujoy and I had made a beautiful film together and he is someone I am very fond of, I know he is upset with me (for refusing his upcoming film Durga Rani Singh) but hopefully he'll come around someday."
Same here. Vidya is a very close friend and someone I will always owe a lot to.