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Telling the truth

DETERMINED Rensil D'Silva says the film would initiate a debate

Two screenplays, Aks and Rang De Basanti, and former admaker Rensil D' Silva won Karan Johar's trust. After RDB, Karan wanted to make an adventurous sports film with director Soham Shah and entrust Rensil with the responsibility of writing its screenplay. “They fell apart for some reasons but we got talking,” says Rensil. Next, Karan wanted Rensil to pen the screenplay of Kurbaan – a story he had in mind, for his Dharma Productions. Content with the screenplay, Karan offered it to Rensil to direct too.

The film that released this Friday, reveals 42-year-old Rensil, is a marked departure from Karan's former family melodramas though the intensity of the love story remains. “Its plot unfolds differently though terrorism serves as a backdrop. It is also a political drama that ponders on how the West deals with Islam. It creates a dialogue between fundamental and radical Islam,” shares Rensil who often perked up the viewers' appetite with Perk and McDonalds ads among over 100 other commercials.

But Kurbaan, he says, is serious business where he had to take care of each and every dialogue to “appear non-partisan”. Such films made often with the oomph factor in mind, he admits, dilute the main issue amid stylisation and songs. We have New York as the latest example. “I agree. Such films are like races, some make it like a marathon and some like a 100-meter race. After all, both are done for competition. But Kurbaan tells a story and leaves the conclusion to the viewers. It compresses and expands and sets a very different pace. I hope it leaves some residual impact though we haven't tried to be judgmental in it,” avers Rensil.

This Mumbai Scottish student also admits that to make a film with such subjects a success, economics becomes a major priority. “You cannot avoid the commercial reality. It is a costly film. We shot almost the entire film in the US. To get the money back, stars like Saif and Kareena were needed. Their off-screen chemistry is talked about and both are also actors as well as style icons. Moreover, Saif has proved himself and for Kareena it is a defining role which would be remembered for long.”

A love story

Briefly, the film is a love story between a Muslim professor (Saif) and America-returned Hindu lecturer (Kareena) who fall in love while teaching at Delhi University, get married and move to stay in New York. The girl later finds out that she was a ploy in the hands of her man who used her strategically to dwell in New York for his end games. Rensil, a Commerce graduate, who did his “nine-month” course in filmmaking from St. Xavier, Mumbai, and devoted 17 years as a creative director in ad agencies and worked for Channel V and MTV, has just finished working on Mani Ratnam's Ravan, apart from Shoojit Sircar's Johny Mastana and David Dhawan's Hook Ya Crook.

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