Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar starring Manoj Bajpayee, Tabu, Aditya Srivastava, Saurabh Shukla, Vijay Raaz, Harsh Chhaya, Gajraj Rao and others released in 2000. It was Hansal Mehta’s earliest movies in Bollywood. As it completes 24 years today, Zoom spoke to Mehta exclusively about how he looks back at the movie today.
What are your thoughts on 24 years of Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar?
Just a lot of disappointment with those people who have lost the film’s negatives. And of course because you never fail to remind me I do have bittersweet memories of a film that was perhaps made before its time.
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Why do you say that?
The critics panned it, the audience avoided it and we lost a lot of money and friends. Just glad to be doing what I do and enjoying it thoroughly inspite of this experience. It is a bittersweet memory. It was a risky film, so dark and funny that nobody was prepared for it.
Do you feel it was wrongly projected to the public?
Yes, though I’m proud of what we did so ahead of the time, I just feel it was positioned wrongly. Somewhere I was dishonest in the way it was presented.
Why do you say that?
Lovely songs but too many for the film , again misplaced commerce. But overall I am proud of what we achieved in Dil Pe Mat LeYaar. Great performances, some way ahead of their times.It was also the beginning of my exploration of the outsider’s theme.
Please explain?
It began my obsession with the migrant stories, the invisible outsiders of the city and their desperation, in the process their loss of innocence. It was a cautionary tale about our current invasive mediatised times.There were so many themes ,all of which became a part of my later works.I learnt so much from this experience. I lost much and gained much.
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Would you make changes in the screenplay if given a chance?
One day I might remake it! And it will be a more polished film but might lack the innocence of what we made twentyfour years ago.