Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; June 8, 2012)

 

Dibakar Banerjee’s office at Parel’s Chivda Galli, located close to his home and strategically away from Oshiwara, the hub of Bollywood, is deceptively calm. There is none of the flurry that marks film offices weeks ahead of a release.

The director of critically acclaimed films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Love Sex Aur Dokha, may seem non-filmi, but he has learnt the ways of Bollywood well in the seven years since he shifted from Delhi to Mumbai.

Just before the release of Shanghai, which he describes as a political thriller, the 42-year-old Banerjee settles down for an interview with Bombay Times.

Excerpts…

Unlike many other directors in Bollywood who are star-chasers, you’re known for your unconventional casting. Is that a stroke of genius or just majboori? Today, people are calling Emraan Hashmi a box office star, but one year ago when I cast him in Shanghai, people who are seen as opinion makers sneered at me and said, ‘Who? That kissie guy?’ I, of course, can’t stop smiling because I can stand on a rooftop and say, ‘This person you have been sniggering at all these years can do this (perform)’. The same goes for Abhay Deol. When I was casting him in Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, they said, ‘Why are you casting him? He is so nonfilmi’ and then suddenly he became the poster boy for alternative cinema. This gives me strength to take the next step forward. For instance, you have no idea how much pressure I was put More >