Rituparno Ghosh makes Ajay play loser
- keralanext.com
It's not easy for an ace Bengali director to suddenly switch to Hindi. But Rituparno Ghosh is getting along rather well, thanks to the lead actors in his first Hindi film "Raincoat" -- Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai.
Ghosh revealed in an interview with IANS that Ajay plays a "loser for the first time" and Aishwarya plays "an everyday girl". Excerpts:
How're you coping with the changeover from Bengali to Hindi?
It was a problem. And to top it all, the person who was helping me with the Hindi dialogues earlier was too text-bookish with the lines. Fortunately I've now got someone who has worked with Ram Gopal Varma and he's doing a fine job. And my leading man, Ajay Devgan, is such a help with the language and everything else. He comes on the sets without even being asked.
As for Aishwarya Rai, we've worked together already, so the comfort level is extraordinary. Both Ajay and Aishwarya are making the film easy for me. I never expected such cooperation. They're at home with my entire unit. When we aren't shooting, Ajay calls me to his hotel to chill out. Unfortunately I'm too tired after shooting.
Ajay is such a prankster. He knows I'm petrified of cats, so he looks around for one to scare me. Ajay is working for the second time in Kolkata (after Mani Rathnam's "Yuva") and for the first time with a Bengali unit. He seems thoroughly relaxed.
What's the difference between making films in Bengali and now in Hindi?
The two languages are quite similar. The main difference between my last film, "Chokher Bali", and my new film, "Raincoat", is the mood and characterisations.
The Ash that you saw in "Chokher Bali" and the Ash you will see in "Raincoat" are radically different. She doesn't play a heroine in "Raincoat". She's an everyday girl. For her to play a dizzying heroine is easier. This is far tougher. She presumed that the familiarity of the language would make "Raincoat" easier. How wrong she was, ha, ha!
How much preparation did she undertake for the part?
She's being extremely meticulous, consulting people on her character's Bihari accent, shopping for the right clothes. She wants to bring a Bihari for consultation at the dubbing. It's a pleasure to be working with her again. I've worked with her for 40 days in "Chokher Bali". We had time to develop a rapport.
Ajay is the new element in my unit. There has been no time to establish a rapport. That he has acclimatised himself so well to my unit is so fortunate. Ajay is quick on the uptake. He doesn't harass me with too many questions. And you know, for the first time he plays a loser.
He has never done that before. The first thing that I told him to do is to shed his confidence before the camera. Immediately he changed his body language. The voice he will change during dubbing.
How have you taken away the starry quality in Ajay and Aishwarya?
Ash is looking into details about her look. I feel the moment an actor looks right she slips into the part. If Ajay says he'll be ready in 30 seconds I can time his arrival by my watch. Every morning he sits with me on the scenes and makes changes in the Hindi if it doesn't sound right to him.
I suppose for the first time in the history of Indian cinema, a shooting started a day in advance! We were supposed to start shooting Feb 17. Ajay and Ash arrived in Kolkata from the Sahara wedding on Feb 15. The next day, Ash was just supposed to do a make-up rehearsal. Since we were ready I called up Ajay half-jokingly to say we could shoot. He readily came, and we shot a scene a day in advance!
It must be very eventful on the sets.
There's no major drama on the sets. Anu Kapoor, Samir Dharmadhikari - whom I signed after seeing "Satta" - Surekha Sikri and Mouli Ganguly...we're all comrades on the sets.
Shubha Mudgal will be singing for me. Guess what? I'm writing the Hindi lyrics. By March our shooting is over. We should be releasing "Raincoat" by June.
