Amit Sharma does not strike you as a man in the initial stages of his Bollywood career. Indeed, the brainchild behind the Google re-union advertisement and the Silent National Anthem seems to know a thing or to about the art of film-making. As his first directorial venture, “Tevar”, starring the vivacious Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, and veteran Manoj Bajpayee hits the screens this Friday, the man talks of his transition to films and why “Tevar” is not a remake but an adaptation.
As a director, do you find it the hard to be involved with the idea of a remake, since the audience might not recognize your creative input to the film?
I believe the answer to that is my film. When the audiences shall go the theatres and watch the movie, they shall the dissimilarity between the two films. It has been 12 years since the original Telugu film (the super hit “Okkadu”, starring Mahesh Babu, Bhoomika Chawla and Prakash Raj) was released. Plus, we (co-script writer Shantanu Srivastava) worked on the script for seven months. Had our intention been to remake the original, we would hardly have done that. I did not want to make a remake. My film is an adaptation. The characters are new and the setting the setting is different.
A lot of your previous work has been subtle and observational. When you did a film like “Tevar”, was it a transition that you feared?
Well, I have also made dynamic ads. See, a filmmaker is sometimes as good as an actor, there are perceptions of an actor’s craft and there are perceptions of the craft of an ad filmmaker where he is supposed to make just good looking ads. Ad film making and film making are connected. If you are connected with the story, be it action, romance or drama, if you understand the emotion, it is not difficult or easy to make a movie.
Your story is set in Agra. What was the reason behind opting for the UP town?
The idea behind the setting was to capture a sense of the colloquial slang, a sense of enjoyment. The characters, they way they talk, that I feel, would be enjoyable to the audiences. I also needed a monumental background for our film. Our cinema has already shown facets of Bombay and Delhi. Agra and Mathura would bring freshness to Bollywood.
Please tell us about the casting.
For me, Arjun and Sonakshi were gift wrapped and gifted to me. It was a great relief that I did not have to go to stars with my script and convince them for my film. First time I met Arjun, I walked up to him and said, you’re not Arjun Kapoor, you’re Pintoo Shukla from Agra, I see that in your eyes. For me, he has done an amazing, brilliant job. Sonakshi has done an outstanding role in the film.
What about the other actors ?
The other actors in the film, Raj Babbar ji, Deepti Naval ji have all been superb. There is Subrat Datta, who is outstanding in the film. Rajesh Sharma is another such actor who has done a great job.
All these actors, they have just made this film work for me and for all of us.
