Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj is the latest guest on Mid-day's Sit With Hitlist conversation series. Here's a sneak peek into the conversation
Vishal Bhardwaj says Aamir Khan wanted to be cast in the role of Langda Tyagi
Eight-time National Award-winning filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj is a treasure trove of experiences and anecdotes. Mid-day recently got to be an audience to some of those accounts when he sat down for a chat as part of our Sit With Hitlist conversation series.
His first film was going to be something called Barf, which was supposed to be a cross-border tale. Bhardwaj insists such a film cannot be made in current times. “Abhi toh waise hi anti-national bolte hain, phir bolenge Pakistan jao,” he says.
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The filmmaker also talks about the difficulties he faced while pitching some of his titles, which later became films loved by the audience – Maqbool being one such example. “I went to so many people with Maqbool, no one understood… I tried so hard to make Khufiya, but nobody came to make this film,” he says.
Khufiya was released on Netflix earlier this year. Based on the novel 'Escape to Nowhere' written by ex-Chief of Counter Espionage Unit of R&AW, Amar Bhushan, Khufiya takes you on a journey of a RAW operative Krishna Mehra, who is assigned a very crucial mission which leaves her juggling between her dual identity as a spy and a lover.
Before he became a filmmaker, Vishal Bhardwaj was an award-winning music composer. Ask him what is similar between making films and composing music, and he says, "This invisible thing, that you can’t say what is working and what is not working."
Most of his films have been based on literary work. He made the film Saat Khoon Maaf based on Ruskin Bond's novel, with Priyanka Chopra playing the lead. "When I decided to make a film on 'Susana and Her Seven Husbands', I asked Ruskin sahab, 'Write it like a novella.' And he wrote it like a novella, just for me," he reveals.
One of the greatest writers that Bhardwaj admires is Bashir Badr. He was witness to Badr's house getting torched during the riots in Meerut. Bhardwaj says the scene in Haider where Shahid Kapoor’s character comes back and finds his whole house burnt, was inspired by that incident.
The conversation also steers towards another masterpiece by the filmmaker – Omkara. Aamir Khan was fascinated by the role of Langda Tyagi, and wanted to be considered for it. However, Bhardwaj surprised everyone by casting Saif Ali Khan in a never-seen-before avatar.
“Saif ka maine Dil Chahta Hai dekhi toh mujhe laga… because earlier Saif had a very feminine voice, he used to perform weirdly…” the filmmaker goes on to reveal more, which you will find in the full video out on December 16.
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