What's Nagesh Kukunoor preoccupied with during the promotion of his upcoming film Mod ? Planning his next movie. That's unusual for a man who relishes living his films, one at a time. But more than the theme of his next, this filmmaker is thinking about how he will promote it! “With Mod , I hardly let anyone know I was making a film. I vanished, I shot and returned. Now I am paying the price. I have had to do twice the amount of talking I do to promote my films and that too for an entire month instead of a couple of weeks,” says Nagesh, exasperation evident in his voice.
“I tried to make a traditional Kukunoor movie; naively going away from the crowds like I had done with Hyderabad Blues 1 and 2 ,” explains the director-producer. Mod has been made under the revived Kukunoor Movies label unlike his recent films which were under the SIC Productions banner owned by himself and partner Elahe Hiptoola. “The immediate connect with my name is there unlike in SIC. But the ballgame is different now. It's all about marketing and making your film familiar from day one. I will make sure mine will be full on next time!”
Mod is Nagesh's adaptation of the 2007 Taiwanese film Keeping Watch . Starring Ayesha Takia and Rannvijay Singh, the film revolves around Aranya, who stays in the fictitious town of Ganga (the director's version of Utopian India) with her father, living a rather monotonous life running their ancestral clock shop. Father and daughter always keep a watch on trains coming to their town, hoping they will bring their estranged mother back home. Instead it brings to town a shy and quirky young man named Andy who claims to be Aranya's classmate. Under the pretext of getting his perennially waterlogged watch repaired, he comes to her shop regularly and a romance seems to develop. Just then he disappears and Aranya goes about digging into his past to discover much more than she anticipated.
“I was at the Asian Festival of First Films when I saw Keeping Watch and the soul of the film just grabbed me. It was a delicious romance to recreate for Indian audiences, but I only contacted the producers three years later and bought the rights,” reveals Nagesh. He shot for over 42 days in Ooty, Coonoor and Kotagiri.
Handling romance was not at the top of Nagesh's priority list ever. “I never wanted to do a love story because the subject is done to death. At the heart of any love story, audiences have to care about the characters. My Mod is unique in that sense. It has oddball characters, unusual elements and a quaint old town setting. The audience keeps wondering what the payoff is and that keeps them riveted besides the love angle that is common to every second film,” he says.
Director's actor
Ayesha Takia, on a hiatus of two years post her marriage, was keen on making her comeback in a Kukunoor film so there wasn't any convincing to be done. “She is a director's actor. Ayesha is so good; it was a pleasure watching her bring Aranya to life everyday on the sets. For Andy's character we were looking for a new face and doing audition rounds when Rannvijay's name came up. The obvious reference to Roadies was there and I knew he was extremely popular. So we auditioned him and he was so right for Andy. Actually auditioning just gives a peek at what the actor can do. I always try and gauge the honesty an actor will bring to the character and that is what compelled me to rope in Rannvijay. When you see the film, you'll know that he is the surprise package,” says Nagesh.
Ask him if he will now be fine with a candyfloss romance too given his comfort with the genre and he refuses flatly. “One needs to have that kind of sensibility to make a candyfloss romance. One can't make it while muttering under one's breath that this is crazy. My style is the quiet old-fashioned romance and that's what I have done with Mod .”
