New Delhi: 'Bumboo', the official remake of Francis Veber's 'L'emmerdeur' is all set to hit the screens on March 30. The director Jagdish Rajpurohit is confident of film's success despite not having any big star in the film. He talks to IBNLive about the film and difficulties he faced while making the film.
Q: How did the transition from theatre to film happen?
A: I was looking out for two things, script and money. See, at the end of the day, all forms of performing arts have the same kind of connectivity with the audiences. Every medium talks about the issues.
Q: Any specific reason for making a comedy.
A: Stories also follow the same pattern as music. Look at it this way, if something is many years old and written by William Shakespeare then it becomes classic. But at the end of the day, love, crime, hate, sex, comedy will remain as the genres; you can't invent a new genre. I think I am a storyteller than a filmmaker. I am happy if I could get 100 people under a tree to hear my story. I don't even need to make a film then.
Q: You could have written a book then.
A: See, when you're a storyteller sometimes you tell stories that you have made and sometimes you tell stories that you have heard but the story should worth people's time. Something should come out. You never find stories, stories find you.
Q: How did you zero down to this concept?
A: I will explain this with a live demo. I was very innocently flying from Mumbai to Paris when they showed me 'L'emmerdeur'. Something struck in my mind and I decided to remake it. I never decided whether to go for an original story, or an adaptation. Last original story that I have heard about is Akira Kurosawa's 'Roshomon'. You are really lucky if you end up in finding an original plot. Everything in this world is recycled. In a bourgeoisie system, where you want to make a statement that I am the artist, there you need to boast of originality. Hum toh raste ke madari hain, jiska bhi bandar mil jaye nacha lenge (I am a roadside magician; I can make anyone's monkey dance).
And second thing of course is that I have a theatre background where the sanctity of script comes first, so it was imperative for me to take the writer's permission before making the film. Sharm naam ki bhi koi cheez honi chahiye (There should be something called shame). Aaj aap kisi ki kahaani chura rahe ho, kal kisi ki gaadi chura loge, parso kisi ki biwi chura loge (Today you are stealing someone's story, tomorrow you will steal someone's car and then you'll steal someone's wife). A thief will remain a thief. So, I didn't want my children to flaunt 'mera baap chor hai' (My father is a thief).
On a serious note, everybody lifts stories, even Spielberg was accused of stealing Satyajit Ray's work in 'ET'.
Q: Getting remake rights must not be easy.
A: The first difficulty was with the script. No writer sits with a price tag. Further there are many ethical and moral things to take care of. It was very difficult for us to convince Francis Veber and his team.
Q: Are you against the star system?
A: Script makes film not stars. They are important and like ornaments but stars will make the film look stale. Nowadays many films are like this only. The press discards a movie, and then the public does the same, still after one week the film does a business of Rs 100 crore. This is society's hypocrisy. You always deserve what you get, so better not to cry over it.
What I have seen is that cinema as an art form is nothing but a wrong assumption. It's pure business like the 'bhelpuri' business.
Q: Do you think the name 'bumboo' will go well with the audiences?
A: Actually it's going really well with the audiences because it is a common man's word. I have heard this word from the mouths of boys, girls, CEOs, teachers everyone. This is the last word before you cross the boundary of civilization. See, for the rich and the poor, both live on the liberal side of the social theory. It's just the middle class which sets the standard of morality in any country and the same middle class wants a middle way out. Now, even the press has started using 'bamboo'. My research says that 'bamboo' is a national slang and a celebration of pain.
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