6 days Ago By Subhash K Jha
Ravi Chopra left us after a painful and prolonged illness in 2014. Happily, his Baghban became a blockbuster before his death. He was the son of the illustrious B.
R. Chopra, who has given us reformist films like Dharmputra (about communal harmony), Sadhana (rehabilitation of prostitutes), Kanoon (loopholes in the legal system), Insaaf Ka Tarazu (aftermath of rape), Nikaah (Muslim marriage laws), and Aaj Ki Awaaz (crime and the common man). He comes in as the surprising winner of the year.
Written off by cynical sections of the film trade in Mumbai Baghban, an ode to autumnal people, became one of the most influential films in Amitabh Bachchan’s career. In an unpublished interview, Ravi celebrated his banner’s belated success and lashed out at unhealthy cinematic trends. Your banner, though legendary, hadn’t tasted success for years? Baghban came as a boon for us.
Though we've continued to be a success on television, we haven’t been fortunate in cinema. In fact, we haven't made a film in years. BR Films makes films for family audiences.
The era of video in the 1980s diminished the impact of our films. We took a sabbatical from cinema to concentrate on television. But now we’re back because the audience is back.
It’s a euphoric feeling. The audience loved Baghban from Day 1. But a section of Mumbai’s trade insists on dubbing the film a flop even when I was giving them the correct box office figures.
Distributors in every corner of the world are already collecting their overflow cheques. Like it or not, Baghban is a super hit. Overseas, it’s likely to be one of the biggest successes ever.
I guess trade experts in Mumbai don't relish eating back their words. What made you think audiences who enjoy watching 19-year-olds cavorting would love two senior citizens singing and dancing? We had the script for Baghban for many years. See, my father (B.
R. Chopra) always says the subject is the real star of any film. No matter how many times I went through the script of Baghban, it never failed to move me.
I knew whenever we got back to feature films, it would have to be with this and no other film. In fact, one reason why we haven’t made any feature films recently is because I wanted Dad to direct Baghban. It was his dream project, but he wasn’t keeping good health.
One day we decided there was no point in waiting any longer. I decided to direct it myself. We needed a 60-year-old hero.
I didn’t want to dress up a younger hero as an old man. Originally, we had Mr. Dilip Kumar in mind.
But Mr. Bachchan and Hemaji look too posh to be persecuted parents! But you must understand Baghban isn’t the story of a down-and-out couple. It’s about one's parental expectations being crashed to the ground.
A lot of people believe it’s inspired by a Gujarati play, when in fact we looked only into an old Hollywood film called Make Way For Tomorrow. Baghban has made a deep impact. All sections of people have responded to the theme of the parent-child relationship.
A sharebroker from Pune saw the film six times. Every day he came home and cried. Finally, he confessed to his wife that he had let his mother down by leaving her alone in Mumbai.
He has now shifted back to Mumbai. The mother called and thanked me. Would you say this is the first film since Mahesh Bhatt’s Saaraansh with an old couple at the helm to make such an impact? Absolutely.
Another film about old people to make an impact was Avtaar. People kept saying Baghban was inspired by Avtaar when there’s no similarity. Baghban is a special triumph because it doesn’t feature nude nymphets to attract audiences.
We didn’t compromise at all. I always feel audiences want good films. We’ve been running after illusory elements for success only to realize that they don’t work.
Frankly, we knew audiences’ would be blown over by Baghban. I must have seen it 200 times, and I’m still moved. When I watched the film with Mr.
L.K. Advani, I had tears in my eyes.
He said, “I’m glad to see the director is crying for me." What moves is the realism. Some say Salman Khan plays the Good Son with too much benevolence.
But if there are children who hurt their parents, there are those who heal the hurt. You worked with Mr. Bachchan in Zameer 3 decades ago.
How has he changed? He’s matured like old wine. Such a damn good actor! So underplayed. He hasn't become a prisoner of his image.
Throughout, he was in character. What do you think of the multiplicity of films in Bollywood? I think we need to get our act together. According to me, there's nothing like a genre film.
There are only good and bad films. Small films have always been made in mainstream cinema, including our banner, which made songless films like Kanoon and Ittefaq decades before they became fashionable. Indian cinema is now trying to turn small films into a genre and falling flat on the face.
I won’t make a film just to accommodate it into multiplexes. Stalwarts like Mehboob Khan, Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, and my father B.R.
Chopra made films according to the requirements of the script. The budget just followed. Mr.
Bimal Roy shot Bandini in an actual jail. Everyone must make the cinema he believes in. We mustn’t look at the genre but the subject.
Unfortunately, we've ‘got a thousand Xerox copies. By the end of it, we can’t read what's written. But even you made Kal Ki Awaaz after the successful Aaj Ki Awaaz.
But that wasn’t a copy. In Kal Ki Awaaz, we made an anti-terrorist plea long before it became fashionable. We made a point.
It didn’t work. Maybe we went wrong with the selection of the subject. But our organization will never go by the trend.
That’s our USP. But we aren’t infallible. Do you think family values need to be constantly reiterated in our cinema? Every kind of film should be made.
But the feeling that nudity makes a film sell is wrong. S*x per se won’t work. It has to be integral to the subject.
I feel cinema is too powerful a medium to fool around with. My father never took cinema lightly. Neither will I.
What plans for your banner? We’ve signed Amitji and Salman for a father-son story. My first choice was Shah Rukh Khan for the son’s role in Baghban. He couldn’t do it because of his back problem.
I didn't know Salman at all. But I really enjoyed working with him. He’s a very straight-from-heart guy.
I’m surprised by the flak he gets in the press. I also want to make a start-to-finish hard-hitting realistic film, though not a 'multiplex film’ please, before I start my big film. BR FILMS will of course continue with television serials.
Our television serials will be directed by our assistants. Alas, Ravi’s plans never fructified. God had other plans for him.
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