Zoya Akhtar’s first film was probably the best reviewed movie of 2009, but “Luck By Chance” didn’t exactly set the box-office registers ringing. Two years later, Akhtar is back with her second film, a multi-starrer with a big-ticket cast and the baggage of expectations. The filmmaker, 37, speaks about “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” and why her previous film didn’t work.
Q: You’ve gone through the trouble of importing tons of tomatoes for one song sequence in your film. Is that something that was non-negotiable? A: “When we wrote the film, it moved to Spain for certain reasons in the narrative. When I started out on the idea, I wanted it to be a road trip through Mexico but when we started imagining the film, we knew that whatever we needed was in Spain.
Also, I had heard about the Tomatina festival and it was visually very exciting. I spoke to Ritesh (producer) about it and we were going to be there in the summer when the festival was held. So we shot then and came back and shot close-ups, because it is chaotic.”
Q: Are you the kind of filmmaker who wants to plan your shoot or are you someone more impulsive?
A: “Planning is very important. You need to plan stuff. I need to know what I am doing. I don’t know how to make a film without a script. I have never worked with filmmakers who don’t know what they are doing. So that’s been my training anyway. Once you have a plan, which will be your back-up, you can go out there and be impulsive. Because something may happen, you know the scene is not working for some reason, or it’s working differently than you imagined. So you need the headspace to improvise. You cannot say that I’ve planned it this way, so this is the way I will go.”
Q: Your first film ‘Luck By Chance’ was almost like an inside joke on the film industry — it was about people you knew well. Is this milieu familiar to you too?
A: “Do I know these people? Yes I do. Are they part of my lifestyle, my ethos? Yes they are. They are us — they are me, they are my friends. They are people you meet. They are regular people from urban areas, they are professionals, they are well-to-do people and they are all people with their own dreams. They might be in the closet or they may not realise that they are there but they have dreams.”
Q: One thing being said about this film is that it is full of good-looking people. Is that OK with you?
A: “It doesn’t bother me because they are good-looking people but it negates them, because there is a lot more to good actors than just good looks. Just to put them down as eye candy is sad. Also, right now people are looking at your film from the outside, so if they say it looks good, then it means your locations are looking good, your production values are good, so that’s a good thing.”
Q: Your first film was one of the best reviewed films of 2009. Does that put pressure on your second film?
A: “See, even if my first was the number one hit in the county, I would be nervous. You are nervous about every film. I want people to like my film, I want them to get it. You want people to come out not judging it.”
