“No, the audience won’t give up on pizza after watching the film!” Bejoy Nambiar reassures us as he picks a thin crust one at the 24/7 restaurant of The Lalit. The title of the horror flick has become a talking point. “The whole idea was to generate curiosity, and pizza is indeed a character in the film, but not to create a repulsive feeling.”
Quickly filling his plate with the non vegetarian elements available at the buffet, Bejoy settles for a chat on a muggy afternoon. The young producer got interested in the subject after watching the original Tamil version and bought the rights to remake it in Hindi. “I had heard about the film but I watched it in the third or fourth week, and the way the audience was responding to it made me think there is more to it than just a horror or suspense thriller. The fact that from a normal horror film it became something else grabbed me. The whole approach to the film made me feel it could reach a wider audience. It could work as a date movie, and even a family audience can enjoy it. However, we haven’t paid the kind of money that the media is speculating,” says Bejoy.
The director of Shaitan and David says there is a mature audience interested in horror but the industry is not giving them enough material. “The genre has been reduced to sex and sleaze. To me Gumnaam was a wonderful horror film. So was Mahal . In recent times Ram Gopal Varma’s Raat doesn’t get enough credit for its chilling effects.”
His slim frame doesn’t indicate that he is a foodie, but his fondness for chicken and lamb delicacies betrays his partiality for rich food. “When I work on a film, everything gets digested,” says Bejoy showing interest in my lassi. Both in terms of food and films, Bejoy says he is less of a Malayali and more of a Mumbai boy eager to experiment. “When I first came to Delhi, I googled to figure out the location of Al Kausar to have Lucknawi food. As a kid I used to go to Kerala during my summer holidays and had an impression it was stuck in time. I made my short films in Malayalam but when it came to feature films I was sure I will work in Tamil and Hindi films,” says the former assistant of Mani Ratnam.
A keen follower of street food in Mumbai, Bejoy made his experience a part of his first film. “The shot in Shaitan where the characters have bhurji pav in the middle of the street is taken from my real life experience, but that day being the director I was the last the one to eat and by that time the bhurji was burnt to death.” Talking of the food used in the film, Bejoy says all the pizzas were shot fresh and there were no dummies.
Tell him that critics find his films rich in style but low on content, and Bejoy admits he has to be careful in future but underlines that he is only two films old as a director. He suggests that the fact he has been sought out by Vidhu Vinod Chopra to direct a thriller starring Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar implies that his style of storytelling is being noticed. “The idea is to find an independent voice and retain it. The story is not mine, though. It will be a challenge not to be overawed by these big names but then I am hired to present these actors in a new light.”
Time for moong ki dal ka halwa and Bejoy is packed for the hectic days ahead!
