I have a Munnabhai in me: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Vidhu Vinod Chopra talks about his motivations behind taking the Hollywood challenge at 62.

April 12, 2015 07:58 pm | Updated April 13, 2015 08:23 am IST

Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Insiders say finding Vidhu Vinod Chopra in a good mood depends on your homework. But how to prepare when most of the filmmakers wish to talk about their films on the basis of the promos? Chopra is different. He showcased Broken Horses to select media before turning up for the interviews.

As one approaches his room in The Imperial hotel in New Delhi with mixed emotions, he, belying perceptions, seems eager to talk about his foray in Hollywood. “After 3 Idiots, I could have gone on making its sequels but for me money has never been a driving force. I want to throw a challenge at myself. The biggest motivation was that Hollywood looks down upon on our cinema, on our culture. They feel we can only indulge in over the top stuff. I wanted to go there and show them that we can do what you do and as good if not better. It was a kind of anger that was within me for sometime,” says Chopra. Anger and arrogance are two traits that make Chopra a maverick in the media. “I get angry very easily but I channelise my anger to create something. When I was angry about what was happening in Kashmir, I made Mission Kashmir . When I was annoyed about the education system, I backed 3 Idiots .”

Before trying the Hollywood idiom in California, he tried it on home turf as well with Eklavya but the box office was not kind towards the royal guard. It could have also led to anger. Chopra denies it. “The success and failure of my films don’t matter to me. You could say that as the most successful producer I could afford to say this but it is a fact. I always think of Van Gogh. He created some of most timeless works but in his lifetime he could not sell a single painting. My job is to create. When I created Parinda it was not highly appreciated but today it is a cult film. Eklavya is the movie that got me Broken Horses . It was when Nicolas Cage and others saw Eklavya that they realised that Vinod is a great director. My anger doesn’t come from the commercial failure of my film.”

On the challenges of reworking Parinda as Broken Horses , Chopra says when he and co-writer Abhijaat Joshi started with the story of two brothers they found that in American society you don’t find the kind of brothers that we have here. “There, the elder brother can’t lay his life for the younger one. There, they meet once in a year on the Thanksgiving Day. So we made the elder brother slow and it changed the film.”

Despite giving the original a feel of the Western, critics have found that Chopra’s eastern sensibilities still resonate in Broken Horses . Chopra agrees. “Somebody said it is like Quentin Tarantino making 1942 A Love Story in India. Can he do it?”

We know that Chopra first started Broken Horses with Nicolas Cage and Jeremy Renner in the lead but few know that it was not Cage but Chopra who decided to part ways after spending 4.5 million dollars on the project. “They didn’t move out, I moved away. Because I had the freedom to move out. And in the hindsight I feel it was a right decision. I don’t think with Nicolas Cage, James Cameron would have described it is as an artistic triumph. Cage is a great actor but he was not right for the role. It is exactly how I cast Sanjay Dutt for Munnabhai. Shah Rukh Khan (the first choice) would have been great but not in that movie. We lost 4.5 million dollars on that project and then we made this in 15 thanks to Reliance Entertainment.”

Chopra goes back in time to analyse his ability to take risk. “I grew up in Amira kadal (in Srinagar) studying in a Hindi medium DAV School. I was among the best but I learnt English alphabets only in the 7th standard. When I joined Film Institute in Pune I was not aware of the Shakespeare and the Hollywood masters. But still I had a strong self belief. This lack of formal education instilled a kind of freedom in me. A so-called organised mind can’t think of doing both 1942: A Love Story and Broken Horses . You have to be really independent and free in your mind to attempt these completely different genres. Alfonso Cuaron has seen 1942 … and he was overwhelmed by the transition. In a way I have a Munnabhai in me.”

His fascination for World Cinema is not new. His short An Encounter With Faces was nominated for Oscars in 1979. Those were different days, and Chopra whose half-brother Ramanand Sagar was a big name in film business, was surprised.

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