What made you back a small-budget film like Masaan?
For me, it's the content. Masaan, which is directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, is about three characters who are trying to find their place in the world. It's a coming-of-age film set in Benares, in a way that it hasn't been explored. It is not the touristy Benares but the actual city and how it has grown over the years.
Isn't it a difficult film to market? Or does winning at Cannes help its box-office prospects?
It is incredibly difficult to market a film like Masaan. A Cannes-returned film is considered niche. But I think Masaan is an extremely accessible film. We don't have the star-power but the film has got truly different content. It's a film that works purely on a gut level. The awards will help us generate buzz.
Your next directorial Bhavesh Joshi got shelved despite having a star like Sidharth Malhotra in it. How difficult was it to let go of a film you were working on for almost two years?
It's incredibly tough! I still don't think I've been able to let go of it. Actually, you never let go. Eventually, it will come back to me when the time is right. It's kind of a relief right now as we spent so much time working on it. It has opened my mind to other things and newer ideas. I'm developing different stuff now.
You then moved on to your docu-thriller with Saif Ali Khan. What's happening on that front?
No clarity on that yet. For all you know, I could come up with something totally new. But we'll definitely start shooting something new before the end of the year.
Phantom Films suffered a huge blow with Bombay Velvet. It must've affected the morale of everyone...
At Phantom, we like to take risks. NH 10 was completely experimental and so is Udta Punjab. With Bombay Velvet, the risk-taking didn't work. There was a lot of introspection in terms of what went right, what went wrong and what could have gone right. So there is learning for everyone involved. Nobody is traumatised by the failure. If you don't have them, you won't have successes.
Was there a consensus reached between Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl, Madhu Mantena and you about what went so wrong with it?
All of us spoke about it at length and tried to understand what we could have rather done. It's a film that we were working on since the inception of our company. So it's a project that all of us are very, very proud of.
Finally, it looks like there aren't enough people from the filmmaking community talking about the FTII controversy. Do you have a stand on it?
It is absurd that the government is putting someone, who has negligible filmmaking experience, at the helm of a premier filmmaking institution. You wouldn't put a non-doctor in charge of the AIIMS at Delhi, so why would you put a non-director/non-producer at FTII? It's sad but they have to keep fighting till as long as they can. I'd like to know the government's reasons for putting Gajendra Chauhan for that post.