Filmmaker Vasan Bala exclusively spoke to Zoom about his latest directorial Jigra, casting choices, the background score, the colour palette and more. Praising Alia Bhatt, he said, “She is the Greatest of All Time.” Check out the excerpts here!
The world of Jigra is far removed from Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota… Yahan mard aur aurat dono ko dard hota hai?
Even in Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota, the emphasis was on the fact that pain is necessary for survival what we need to develop is endurance and not… not feel pain. Pain is necessary.
The film is extraordinary in its mood swings from sibling love to a full-on jail outbreak… How on earth did you think you could pull it off?
As a kid in school who had seen Plaza Cinema blow up to bits in front of my eyes, I can never forget the huge brownish-black mushroom thick smog with debris. I always used to wonder how was that even possible, how did that even happen, it's just not logical. Then we experienced multiple attacks on the city that day, that defies everything, and the back story seemed planned but still how? How was it so simple? 9/11 happened. If 9/11 was fiction, no one would ever buy that ever happening to the US of A. It happened and one need not explain the facts. So when pushed to a corner with no hope, I felt Satya the character would do the simplest most astonishing how-is -it-possible act! Blow it up! It was a task to film the climax fragmented over many days and weave it together and make it flow like a never-ending fever dream. To make one uncomfortable and unable to wake up from and finally relief… a beautiful dawn.
You have set the film in a country where drug possession earns capital punishment… isn’t that extreme?
It is and extremely unfair but that's the place and those are the rules of that place.
There was some controversy recently about Karan Johar jumping the gun in casting Alia Bhatt.
She is the Greatest of All Time! Incredible artist and an even better human.
The supporting cast is stellar, especially Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa and Rahul Ravindran. Were all of them your first choices?
Casting went through its hits and misses and suggestions and reaching out but now… there is no way it was played by anyone else but them. Loved the collaboration.
I was intrigued by the background score which contains elements of hard rock and Zanjeer how did it happen?
Achint Thakkar has been my partner in music since Monica O My Darling. I love his vibe and his musical mind. Both times I could share my childhood and my musical instincts and he would weave them in his own groove and make them spectacular. He is brilliant!
The use of colours in every frame is indicative of the mood on hand. Please walk me through the colour palate.
Cinematographer Swapnil Sonawane again has been a long-time collaborator. We are both very anti-thriller visual template. It's more about exploring a place and accepting it, rather than forcing a genre into it. Swapnil is primarily a beautiful photographer at heart first, an old soul, finding stories first and then the beauty in it. The story leads… always.
Jigra is the least eccentric of your films so far. Is this a concerted attempt to leap into the mainstream?
I feel, it's most eccentric because with humour and quirk, you can cover up reality but with emotions, you are exposed and one does not tolerate eccentricities there, in that sense, it was being braver here. In Jigra, we wanted to go real, hard, gritty, emotional and then boom! As the mood swing you had mentioned. The mood was always to go boom but it will go only when it’s 00:00.
Interestingly there is no slack for Alia in the fights… She fights man to man. Gender equality?
True. When it comes to survival, it's the size of the fight in the person and gender has nothing to do with it.
What next?
Phew! Totally drained and need to unwind a bit. Have a few stories, will check how relevant it is close to year-end and start the new year afresh and see.