This story is from July 30, 2003

Big stars don't faze Kukunoor

PTI / Jul 30, 2003, 11:22 IST

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NEW DELHI: If his Hyderabad Blues took the 'small' film into the big league, Nagesh Kukunoor now offers another off-beat feature 3 Deewarein.

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript" src="Config?Configid=43376741"></script> <a href="javascript:popUp(&quot1;photopop?msid=102561&voteid=0&type=0&quot1;)"> <img border="0" src="/cms.dll/thumb?height=121&width=121&photoID=102561" hspace="12"" align="left" /></a>NEW DELHI: If his Hyderabad Blues took the ''small'' film into the big league, filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor has moved on to give tinsel town stars a taste of the off-beat -- his latest film 3 Deewarein is a multi-starrer. Kukunoor, whose 3 Deewarein is releasing this week, features well-known actors Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff and Juhi Chawla, says his apprehensions about working with stars has been put to rest. "I expected egos to fly and tantrums to be thrown, but big actors are also very professional and as a director I have been in control," says the filmmaker whose first film Hyderabad Blues, released in 1998, had unknown actors and who went on to direct Nandita Das in Rockford and later the inimitable Om Puri in Bollywood Calling. "At the end of the day, it is the film that is most important, and great actors are aware of this," he says. He is all praise for the professionalism shown by the stars of 3 Deewarein -- a story of three convicts on the death row -- played by Shah, Shroff and Kukunoor himself, with Chawla playing a filmmaker making a documentary based on the lives of the three prisoners. A series of coincidences link the lives of the four characters and events during the filming of the documentary take the film towards a nail-biting finish. Inspired by a documentary on jail-life, the film, which was recently premiered at the Fifth Cinefan Film Festival here, was shot in a real jail in Hyderabad in a carefully pre-planned manner not very typical of Bollywood, but something which Kukunoor is known for. The film was shot in 36 days flat at a modest budget of Rs 2.5 crore despite the impressive star cast, he says. Meticulous planning and pre-production is the way to go about it, says the Hyderabadi director, who gave up his job as an environmental consultant in Atlanta to make films. "Going on the sets with a vague notion of what you want and then expecting to keep getting great ideas on location during the shoot" (a scenario that he deals with in his 2001 release Bollywood Calling, is a big mistake), he says. It was with Bollywood Calling that Kukunoor first got a chance to work with a famous actor. Although he got nightmares about how he was going to direct an internationally renowned actor like Om Puri, who plays a typical Bollywood filmmaker in the spoof on Hindi masala movies, he was put at ease on the very first day of the shoot when Puri walked in and asked him very simply, "Tell me what I have to do?" After Puri, Shah and Shroff, Kukunoor is all set to direct megastar Amitabh Bachchan in his next film titled Tandoor, which will have the Bollywood idol play a chef who sets up shop in the US. Kukunoor is looking forward to directing Big B, and says he expects to "challenge and push" Bachchan to deliver a never-before performance."It is unfortunate that a great actor like Amitabh Bachchan has not been given enough scope to stretch and test his talents. And I expect to do just that, challenge and push him," he says. About how easy or difficult it was to sign Bachchan for the film, to be shot mostly in the US, Kukunoor says, it was not too difficult. The script was delivered to him, he liked it and the deal was on, he says. "When he said yes to the script and it was final that he would be acting in the film, it suddenly hit me with full force that I was actually going to work with Amitabh Bachchan. I had to tell him that I needed some time aside to gush for a few moments," he says. But Kukunoor does not believe in chasing actors. "I give the script to the actor, and the ''yes'' or ''no'' is final. No convincing actors for me," he says. As for Kukunoor the actor, he says he has no qualms about acting in his own films because he loves acting. He has acted in all four of his films. "Probably the test that I have to clear as an actor is to appear in someone else''s film, which I would be doing shortly," says Kukunoor, not divulging the details as the film is in its initial stages. </div> </div>

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