'Cult movies are not made, they are happy accidents waiting to happen'

GURGAON: On a day when the winter sun finally shone bright, the 1st SBI Card Gurgaon International Film and Literature Festival got under way at DLF Cyber Hub.
Folks frequenting this popular hangout might not have guessed what was happening, but that didn't stop a fair few stopping by, and eavesdropping attentively on panellists holding forth on cinema, books and everything else in between.Somehow, hosting such an event outdoors made perfect sense in the end.
And when the likes of Subhash Ghai, Sudhir Mishra and Sagar Sarhadi (among others) get together to chew the fat on films and film-making, people will sit up and take notice. Bollywood, after all, is in the our blood.
Ghai and Mishra were part of a discussion on 'Tipping Point of a Cult Film (Director's Perspective)'. Veteran Ghai maintained there's a lot of serendipity involved when it comes to cult films. For it's those who throng movie halls that 'make' a cult movie like 'Sholay'.
"We don't set out to make a cult film. They just end up being made," said the creator of many a memorable work of cinema.
Mishra, one of those who contributed to the screenplay of the unforgettable 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro', says he who stands still won't grow. "The person who wrote 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro' was someone else," said Mishra. "I have to constantly redefine myself, have to always begin again."
"All you can do is interact with your time. You have to be prepared for that one performance where magic will happen - you do not know when it will happen, but you have to be ready," he adds. Each hinted that with the variety of films being made today, and directors' penchant to experiment, there's probably less chance of a film reaching cult status.
And while directing is an individual thing, film-making is a collaborative process. "Some directors have this childlike quality to make films that appeal to all. Some know the films they want to make, what they want to say, and how the ending will be," said Mishra.
So there's no secret formula, only a mystique. This was echoed by screenplay man Anjum Rajabali and noted writer of Urdu short stories Sagar Sarhadi (Silsila, Chandni, Kabhi Kabhi), in a session which focused on cult films from a writer's perspective. A movie, he said, becomes 'cult' by a series of happy accidents.
It all made for an enthralling start to the festival. The three-day festival will take place from December 4 to 6.