After finding love at box office with Hate Story 2 and Hate Story 3 , director Vishal Pandya is back with the fourth instalment of the franchise which features Urvashi Rautela and Karan Wahi in lead roles.
Here he talks about his journey, his approach to making sequels and his upcoming projects.
Excerpts:
What it takes to make an erotic thriller in these times?
Firstly, I do not know why people use the word ‘erotic’ for my film. One or two scenes in a film does not make it erotic. We need to learn the difference between erotic and romantic. I would like to clear one thing, while making a film we can only exhibit things that are allowed by the Central Board of Film Certification. This tag of ‘erotic’ was given by the media and a section of the industry.
Hate Story has its fourth instalment. Is 'hate' the buzzword, the overriding emotion of our times?
No, 'hate' is just an emotion in the content that I show. Everyone these days is talking about women empowerment but I am the only director right now who does not talk about women empowerment but shows it. All my films are female centric and people love to see that, especially girls.
This time my story is inspired by two events about certain things that are happening almost every day, in every city of India .
What was the most challenging aspect for you while directing Hate Story 4?
The only challenge for me was myself. People recognise you from your previous work so you have to bear the pressure of outdoing yourself. So that was the only challenge. Comparison is something you cannot escape from irrespective of the fact that the previous part was directed by the same director or a different director, comparison is bound to happen.
How do you see your journey so far?
I have worked really hard and it took me almost 17 years to reach here and today when I look back on these years, it feels it was a beautiful journey. The reason why I am saying this is because when I am asked this question about my journey, I feel that I have achieved something that's why I am being asked this question. I feel a sense of contentment with my work, which is very important. When I entered this industry, I wanted two things, one was work and second a good production company, a good producer. And I have been blessed with both so I am very happy.
Tell us about your upcoming projects?
I would love to do a comedy film someday because I think I can make a good comedy film. I have been told by people I work with that I have a fantastic sense of humour and a good comic timing and I would like to believe them.
But right now I am very happy doing what I do. I think it is important to fix a genre for yourself. Directors like Abbas-Mustan, David Dhawan, Rohit Shetty have established themselves in a particular genre. Hate Story has already fixed my genre. After this, I will be doing another romantic thriller and it is again going to be in collaboration with T-series.
