Abhishek Sharma’s second directorial venture

Tere Bin Laden director writing second comedy.

MUMBAI:

After the success of his 2010 tongue-in-cheek Bollywood satire Tere Bin Laden, director Abhishek Sharma is working on his second film which too will have satirical shades.

“I’m working on a script at the moment and I hope the producers like it. It’s a comedy,” Sharma said in an interview.

“I’m a very cynical person, so satire in some way or the other will be a part of the film. I deal with certain issues that I feel strongly about by laughing at them, rather than getting bogged down. So I want to bring out that humour,” he added.

The film’s cast has not been decided because it is still on the scripting stage.

“I’m a very slow worker; so I really don’t know by when the story will be ready and the cast and crew decisions taken,” said the National School of Drama (NSD) graduate.

Sharma’s last film Tere Bin Laden, which was produced by Walkwater Media, revolved around a small-time television reporter (Ali Zafar) in Karachi whose visa application for the US gets rejected. He stumbles upon an Osama Bin Laden lookalike and proceeds to create a fake tape to get to the US. The film was a success in India.

Sharma said he loves making comedy and will continue to do so. “I like comedies. I think I want to see people laughing.”

“Maybe tomorrow I’m too content with this genre and I think about other genres. As an audience, I like watching films of other genres too, but as a filmmaker I have a sense of humour; I want to use it and I want to make people laugh,” the director said.

Does he venture into comic films as they usually tend to set cash registers ringing at the box office?

“Luckily comedy is a very audience-friendly genre and I have a little bit of a sense of humour. But other genres work too,” Sharma said.

“For me right now, it is comedy because I like making it. Of course we are in times where people need comedy; so it does give me a little advantage as well,” he added.

Sharma said Pankaj Kapur is one of his favourite actors and he would love to work with him some day.

“Pankaj Kapur is my favourite. We have some great actors in our industry but somehow I feel that the talent of Pankaj Kapur has not been fully tapped. I really love his work and hope to work with him in future,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2011.