MUMBAI: Earlier this year, in a hush-hush meeting, ace filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee signed a three-film deal with one of India’s biggest production houses: Yash Raj Films. This deal marked Dibakar’s transition into the super-league of Bollywood.
The first film in the three-film deal is on the floors and is being shot in Delhi. “It’s a co-production deal. The first film has gone on the floors as of now. It is being shot in Delhi right now,” Dibakar said. When asked about the story-line, the lead actors and the inspiration behind the film, he replied, “I can’t talk about anything else.”
Sources tell us that acquiring Dibakar was a part of Aditya Chopra’s Out-of-the-Box-Talent-Hunt program. It seems that YRF was more keen on getting the ace director on-board than Banerjee was to strike a deal with the big production house.
Dibakar is well known for making off-beat films like ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’, ‘Shanghai’ and ‘LSD: Love Sex Aur Dhoka’ and has garnered a lot of critical acclaim for them. He has often been very open about how small budgets have hampered his scope and style of functioning. Therefore the director was very clear about one thing: that if he was going to collaborate with a big production house it was going to be on his terms and conditions and that he will not be forced, in any way, to compromise on his filmmaking methods and his ideologies.
Our sources added: “Dibakar wouldn’t settle for any less. Yash Raj requested him to scale down his remuneration. But Dibakar who has openly spoken of how budget constraints cramped his style of functioning to the extent that he couldn’t take his entire Shanghai team to the last IIFA awards, was very clear that if he agreed to work with a well-placed production company, he would be paid well.”
Talking about ‘Bombay Talkies’ being screened at Cannes Film Festival Banarjee proudly said: “Thrilled to walk the red carpet following Karan, Zoya and Anurag leading the way and representing Indian cinema!” ‘Bombay Talkies’, an anthology film that collaborates 4 short films by Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar, is slated to release in Indian theatres on 3 May 2013.
