Sanjay Gupta just can’t stop smiling! The successful producer-director’s production house White Feather Films has inked its name to be the first in Bollywood to have signed multi-film deal worth Rs 200 crore with Essel Vision Productions Pvt Ltd, the creative and production studio of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. Jazbaa, featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Irrfan Khan, Shabana Azmi and Anupam Kher will be their first joint venture that will go on floors in January 2015 and besides that they are committed to make around six films out of which three will be directed by Gupta.
In an exclusive chat with BC, the action thriller specialist of Bollywood, SG shares White Feather Films production plan, Jazbaa which marks Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s comeback, his next Mumbai Saga and more.
Excerpts:
How did Rs 200 crore deal make the grade?
I met Girish Johar, Head of Distribution and the Business Head Akash Chawla and in the first meeting itself we knew that we are like minded people and want to achieve something good. They liked the material I proposed. My homework is to such a great extent that from pre-production promo to the script to the posters, music… everything is ready. So they have seen that kind of detailing and they felt comfortable. Most partnerships happen for a film or two and if you make a loss both parties tend to not work again. In this case, they came in with the idea that they want to have a long association. They were like – if we lose money in the first project, no problem because we know that there’s another film to make it up. Invariably what happens with studios is like for instance if they lose money on two films and if a studio is working with five different production houses, they will try to recover that money out of the next three films which has happened to me in the past. I’ve worked with studios where they have lost serious amount of money on the rather bullshit films and my films make money. So here that’s not happening as we know that we are already pregnant with two films on bed and have two or three more films. So there’s no question of taking each other for a ride.
So how many films are you planning to make?
The intention is to do three films in the next year and after that gradually three in 2016. I’ll not be directing all of them but at least three of these I’ll be directing.
So you have all the scripts in place?
Yes, every movie that we intend to make will be in my space in terms of the genre and I’m not trying to experiment. I would like to stick to my forte and I want to concentrate on that work and put it out.
Sanjay, it’s learnt that you’ve bought rights of lot of foreign films?
Yes, I’ve already bought lot of scripts and got some remake rights of films and some books. Now, we will be aggressively getting into production back to back.
So Jazbaa is one of those that you intend to direct?
Yes.
How did Jazbaa make the grade?
I saw a foreign language film which I liked very much and bought the rights of it. The original had a very strong female part and so for its Hindi version I wanted somebody larger than life, who can carry the film on her shoulders. So I thought why not try approaching someone who’s right there at the top. Who bigger and better than Aishwarya Rai Bachchan? I met Abhishek (Bachchan) those days for some other film and I told him about Jazbaa, so he set up a meeting with Ash and made it happen.
Was it tough convincing Ash to do Jazbaa?
Not at all, in fact, even she has been waiting for the right script, exciting material. Every big actor today, be it Ash, Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan, looks for three things – good script, a good director who will confidently and properly execute the film and a good production house which will take the film forward. With Zee coming on board, it’s like a win-win situation for us.
The film marks Aishwarya’s comeback and the film have already created lot of buzz. Do you think half the battle is won?
The battle has just only begun. And it’s going to be a long and tough journey. It’s not a low cost film but at the same time the vision and mission for it is very high cost. So to balance the two is going to be a task.
Being a parent, have you made adjustments keeping Aishwarya’s motherhood in mind?
Definitely, half the time we talk only about our children because our kids are the same age and they have started going to school. So in that case we were very clear. It was pre-decided that we will only shoot during the weekdays and not on weekends. Weekends are for family. We will take our time finishing it and have a nice comfortable journey.
When is Jazbaa going on floors and when do you plan to wrap it up?
In January and we plan to wrap it up by March next year. It’s a modern day slick thriller and I’m very clear with my target audience for the film. As a maker, I’ve got a fixed male target audience but with Jazbaa I’m also trying to reach out to reach the target audience apart from that which is the youth as well as the women because that’s the nature of the film. My next film Mumbai Saga is again a male-centric one.
Will you start shooting Mumbai Saga around May?
Maybe early than that. It’s almost going to start as soon as we wrap Jazbaa.
Have you finalised actors for Mumbai Saga?
No, and I’m not talking about that yet because I’m focusing on Jazbaa for the time being and Mumbai Saga is going to be later whenever we get down to it.
How does it feel when you look back at your career?
I feel after being so many years in the business I finally feel that I’m in a nice, comfortable and decent space now because of the producing partners that I have. My partners have the same passion for cinema. He’s extremely prolific in his output and I’m glad he’s beginning his journey into Hindi in a big way with us.
Source:http://bollywood.celebden.com/2014/12/24/sanjay-gupta-wasnt-tough-convincing-aishwarya-jazbaa/
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