‘Trends are for imitators, not for innovators’

From dark thrillers to love stories to now a book adaptation, filmmaker Mohit Suri’s connect with the story is paramount

Indian Bollywood film director Mohit Suri attends a promotional event for the Hindi film "Aashiqui 2" in Mumbai on April 24, 2013. AFP PHOTO/STR

Like any filmmaker whose movie release is around the corner, Mohit Suri is busy juggling press interactions, television appearances and endless moments of jitters. Eleven films down, you’d expect Suri to be used to the frenzy. But Half Girlfriend is different: it is also his foray into being a co-producer.

Before kick-starting a line-up of press interviews, Suri takes a moment to savour a salad and spend some quiet moment by himself. We’re at writer Chetan Bhagat’s apartment in Bandra, where a group of journalists have congregated in the living room waiting for their turn to speak to Bhagat and Suri. The two have not just collaborated creatively for the film but are also co-producers along with Ekta Kapoor’s ALT Entertainment and Balaji Motion Pictures.

 

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Half Girlfriend , Suri’s interaction with Bhagat has come full circle. When he started his career as a director, he read Bhagat’s debut novel Five Point Someone and called up the author for an adaptation. “Chetan told me that he had already sold the rights to Vidhu Vinod Chopra,” informs Suri. “But he did remember me.” A few years later, after Suri finished making Aashiqui 2 (2013), Bhagat offered him Half Girlfriend . “I was wondering why he would come to me for a film like that, because the name sounded like a fluffy, popcorn love story,” recounts Suri. On reading the novel, the filmmaker realised it was a love story rooted in the Indian reality of urban class divide. It also had a strong musical component to it, much like Suri’s movies. The leading lady, for instance, wishes to perform in a jazz bar in New York. “So I think he ‘cast’ me very intelligently and that’s what a creative producer is supposed to do, and I give him full marks for that,” jests Suri.

Half Girlfriend is also the first book adaptation Suri has worked on. “The most difficult part for a director is what story to tell,” he shares. “That was taken care of by the book.” But despite the ready availability, squeezing the novel into a two-hour long film was challenging for Suri. The filmmaker decided to go ahead with his own interpretation of the book. “You can’t meet the expectations of all two million readers,” he sighs.

Evolving filmography

The adaptation appears to be in tandem with the kind of films Suri has been making since Aashiqui 2 : movies with an intense emotional core. But the filmmaker had started his career with dark and gritty thrillers and dramas. “I was seven films in and realised that I had peaked with Murder 2 (2011),” reflects Suri. That’s when he turned towards love stories. Three films down, has the genre now become a comfort zone for the filmmaker? “The day I start feeling comfortable that’s when I’ll step out and make something else. That’s what internal organic growth is,” explains Suri.

 

The filmmaker also went through a phase when he made sequels back-to-back, including Raaz – The Mystery Continues (2009), Murder 2 (2011) and Aashiqui 2 (2013). More than the content, calling a film a sequel based merely on its theme seemed like a clever marketing move. “ Murder 2 was based on a script called R ed Light which had no connection to the first part, but after the success of Raaz 2 , the producers decided to make it a franchise,” he recalls. With Aashiqui 2 , Suri used the brand name to simply position his film as a clean, musical love story. But irrespective of title, what matters most to the filmmaker is his connection with the content. “Trends are for imitators and not for innovators,” he asserts.

Leaving the den

Starting his career under the wings of the Bhatt family, nine of Suri’s films have been produced under the Vishesh Films banner. “I have a lot of respect for the way they work,” he shares. But in 2014, with Ek Villain, he finally decided to step out and work with Balaji Motion Pictures. Half Girlfriend is his second venture with the production house. “It’s like one of the cubs have grown up and gone out, and is marking his own territory. It maybe small right now but I’m trying to expand,” says an optimistic Suri.

 

The remnants of an early start to his career is visible in the appearance of the 36-year-old filmmaker. Dressed in a casual T-shirt, denims and a pair of sneakers, he resembles the assistant director he was in his early twenties. “Earlier I was a bachelor living in a one room house in Bombay, and now I have a family of my own,” shares Suri, who is married to actor Udita Goswami.

From Kalyug (2005) to Aashiqui 2 , the filmmaker has tasted success at a young age. “But with time, your drives change,” he says. Despite joining the 100 crore club with Aashiqui 2 , money no longer drives Suri. “I realised I want to make a difference in peoples lives… I’m on the self actualisation level,” he says, referring to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Starting closer to home, the filmmaker has given four new singers a chance to sing in Half Girlfriend , with his music label EMI Records India. He also plans to launch new directors after becoming a full-time producer. “I want to give others the opportunity that I got,” he asserts.

Success, after all, is an ever evolving concept. And for Suri, it currently involves an aspiration to mentor, just like he was by the Bhatt family for a decade.