CELEBRATE BANDRA 2014 Breaking Ground: A Conversation with Directors
Day 5: Wednesday, 26 November Venue: St Paul’s Institute of Communication Education Redefining the Cliché Vikas Bahl & Sarita Vijayan By Cecilia D’souza
“If you are happy in the morning when you start your day, it means you’re successful.” That was director Vikas Bahl response to Sarita Vijayan when she asked him to define success. Bahl and Vijayan were talking on the theme, Redefining the Cliché, in the fourth episode of the film segment of the Celebrate Bandra festival. Bahl also offered some insights into the making of his films Chillar Party (2011) and Queen (2014). As for the much-acclaimed film Queen, Bahl confided that he loves travelling, which is why the movie had a lot of travel in it.He says quite a bit of it came out of his own experiences. The character of Rani (played by Kangna Ranaut) was inspired by his mother who wanted to become a Librarian, but put her dreams aside because her husband wanted her to stay home. It’s a story that could happen to any woman, said the director. The script did not come easy though; he took over three years and 12 drafts to write it. What about a sequel? “If I have to do Queen 2, I would like to direct the movie from the point of view of RajKumar Rao (the actor who played the lead male role),” said Bahl. Before Queen 2, however, Bahl will have another movie, Shaandar, coming up. This film reflects his love of travel too—it is a destination wedding film, in which an Indian family goes to Europe.
