Bombay Talkies most fun experience: Dibakar Bannerjee

Film-maker says he is not sure if he will get a chance to work with three of his friends again.

MUMBAI:

While making Bombay Talkies with three other directors, film-maker Dibakar Bannerjee has gone through the most fun experience of his life and he dreads leaving it behind.

“When again would I get a chance to work so closely with three of my friends Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar,” says the successful auteur. Bombay Talkies is an anthology film consisting of four short films released May 3. “We were constantly in each other’s space enjoying each other’s works more than our own. Not only did we make these four films together we also promoted and marketed the finished product together. There was no sense of competition … only deep kinship,” adds Bannejerjee.

Tell him that his film is the one most appreciated amongst the films in Bombay Talkies and Bannerjee brushes off the compliment, saying: “I am too close to my own work to judge its value, but my favourite film of the omnibus is Karan’s. Not only has he yanked himself out of his comfort zone, he has made sure that he hasn’t compromised on the telling of his story.”

About the presence of an emu as a pivotal character in his film Bannerjee laughs and says, “That was an idea given to me by two documentary film-makers who helped me with the film. Emu farming was a major enterprise in innumerable households across Maharashtra and other states some four to five years ago. It ruined so many families. The emu in Nawazuddin’s home is symbolical of his wasted life.”

At the moment Bannerjee is a hands-on producer for his erstwhile assistant Kanu Behl’s film Titli which he and Yashraj Films are co-producing together. “I am not thinking of directing another film at the moment. I just want the out-of-the-box experience of Bombay Talkies to get optimum viewership,” he says hopefully.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2013.

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