MUMBAI: Sahara One Motion Pictures has acquired Bas Ek Pal starring Sanjay Suri, Urmila Matondkar, Jimmy Shergill, Juhi Chawla and Rehaan Engineer. The film defines the relationships among these intertwined characters and how one incident brings them all together. It has Yashpal Sharma, Purab Kohili and Chetan Pandit in special appearances.
Matondkar says, “After watching his film My Brother Nikhil, I was very keen on working with a director like Onir. Bas Ek Pal does not carry a social message like his earlier film My Brother Nikhil but deals with the complexities of life and balances the greys of life. I play the role of a civil engineer in the film called Anamika. I enjoyed playing the character to the hilt. As a writer and director, Onir has a way of thinking and it comes across in the way he treats the film and the way he etches his characterizations in his films.”
According to Juhi Chawla, Onir is a tough taskmaster. “Onir demands and extracts a lot. The highlight of the film is that each and every character carries a lot of baggage. Onir and I fight a lot as an actor and director but at the end of the day, I respect him and value his opinion as a director. Onir too in turn respects me and values my opinion as an actor.”
Sanjay Suri who plays the character of Niklhil Kapoor in Bas Ek Pal is very excited about the project. “When you compare my role in Bas Ek Pal with my role in my other films, you will realize that I have been little more sober in my other roles. In Bas Ek Pal, Nikhil lives by heart and not his mind. He is pro-active. Though simple, he is also aggressive and hence gets into problems. As an actor, to get into the skin of my character in the film, I had to look within, extract and perform. When you can convey by blinking, why do you have to shout? What destiny has in store for him and how it changes in a time lapse of three years forms the crux of the subject,” says Suri.
Onir who had earlier directed My Brother Nikhil with Sanjay Suri and Juhi Chawla says, “I am very excited. Bas Ek Pal is a very colorful film about relationships and is very different from My Brother Nikhil. Although it is for the first time that Juhi and Urmila are working together, they both have got along well from the first day of the shooting. They both have built a friendly yet professional relationship with each other. People will definitely like them because they are fresh and have never shared screen space.”
“I do not like stereo types. I like to deal with stories, which deal with relationships because they enrich me. I feel that if there are no complexities in life, I’d not be able to grow as a writer. Bas Ek Pal, which was my second script after My Brother Nikhil has been a growth process for me. I didn’t go to Urmila with a one liner. I gave her a bound script and confessed to her that I wouldn’t be able to narrate the script to her. Urmila for me is the combination of an intense actress with flamboyance, which was needed for the character that she sets out to portray in my film,” adds Onir.
“We are proud to announce the fact that we have taken over the film and all set to release it in a big way on 15 September. Bas Ek Pal is a very urban modern day movie, which is set in the throbbing metropolis of Mumbai. The film sets out to explore the complexities of modern urban inter-relationships and is a journey as each of the characters searches for that ever-elusive moment of happiness,” says Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited CEO Shantonu Aditya.
“We are happy that we have acquired a meaningful and yet commercially viable project like Bas Ek Pal, which has been making waves even before its release, especially after it won rave reviews at the recently held Osian’s Festival of Asian films in New Delhi. We have always been keen on associating ourselves with purposeful and meaningful films and acquiring them for our stable,” says Sahara One Motion Pictures business head Sharang Sharma.
