This story is from September 20, 2010

Why is Sunanda suicidal?

Director Sunanda Mitra tells CT about his next film on youth suicides and his unreleased ‘Jihaad’ that was produced by the recently-detained film-maker, Vijay Kumar....
Why is Sunanda suicidal?
Director Sunanda Mitra is busy scripting his third Hindi film. This time around, the film-maker is steering clear of any remakes, authorised or otherwise. If all goes well, Sunanda will begin shooting for his next titled “Buy One Get One Free” next year.
Says Sunanda, “I’ve noticed a growing trend among the youth to commit suicide. My friends narrated an incident about a child who committed suicide because his parents didn’t let him fly kites.
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Today’s children just can’t take rejection. This is the theme of my next Hindi
feature film.”
However, the director is clear about not wanting to turn this into a serious movie. “I want to approach this topic as a satire. I have a character in my film who is somewhat like Yamraj. With the growing number of suicides, there is some accommodation problem that Yamraj faces in hell. So, he comes up with the idea of offering unhappy people the option of living life to the hilt and in return, a guaranteed happy afterlife on earth. In short, Yamraj offers one life free of cost for another,” he says.
The central character in Sunanda’s film is an unemployed youth. “I’ve had preliminary talks with Shreyas Talpade to play this role. I’d like to approach Naseeruddin Shah to play Yamraj,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Sunanda, is happy that his controversial “Ogo Bodhu Sundori” is finally releasing after having courted legal trouble. Sunanda, though, is no stranger to controversy. “The producer of my first film film, “Jihaad”, is Vijay Kumar. However, that film never got released since it had some footage of bomb blasts. Vijay was recently arrested at the Houston airport for carrying jihaadi literature and also a CD of my film. He was released from custody after the authorities there saw my movie was anti-jihaadi,” says Sunanda. His second film, “Idiot Box”, was a spoof on the television industry and had a character called Anekta Kapoor. So, does Sunanda like things controversial? “Well, I don’t mind a bit of controversy in my life,” he signs off.
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About the Author
Priyanka Dasgupta

Priyanka Dasgupta is the features editor of TOI Kolkata. She has over 20 years of experience in covering entertainment, art and culture. She describes herself as sensitive yet hard-hitting, objective yet passionate. Her hobbies include watching cinema, listening to music, travelling, archiving and gardening.

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