Filmmakers Feel Pressure To Be Different And Original In Today’s World, Says R. Balki At 18th PIFF

Jyothi Venkatesh

‘‘Today we are exposed to a lot of content. We see more interesting, weird things happening in people’s lives. There is a lot of pressure on filmmakers to be different and original in such a world,’’ said renowned Director R. Balki.  He was speaking today while delivering the Vijay Tendulkar Memorial Lecture at PVR Icon as a part of 18th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) organized by Pune Film Foundation and Maharashtra Government. Dr. Jabbar Patel, Director, Piff interviewed Balki.  Balki recalled meeting playwright Vijay Tendulkar in his last days. ‘‘Tendulkar was the bravest writer of our times and he is rather more relevant today. He was brave not only because he was not afraid to speak his mind, but whenever there was disturbance in the society, he didn’t let that disturb him but used it to be more creative,’’ said Balki.Balki talked about his advertising career and some of his very well received films like ‘Cheeni Kum’, ‘Paa’ and ‘Padman’. He also mentioned that the true purpose of cinema is to give back to society.

Talking about the audience, Balki said that, ‘‘People talk about which cinema will appeal to B centre, C centre or A centre etc. I think that there is no such thing. There is only one centre and its your head. When you start formulating things, you are creating something for the people you don’t even know. The content you make should appeal to the normal sensibility.’’  Speaking about the movie ‘Paa’, Balki said,‘‘I thought the idea of the film when I once saw Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan speaking with each other and realized that they were talking in the way very opposite to their personalities. I thought what would happen if Abhishek plays the role of the father and Amitabh of the son. We shot this movie without the VFX effects and most of the film was shot from the top angle to make Amitabh Bachchan look like a child.’’

For more Bollywood updates, follow Bollyy!

Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News,  R. Balki,  PIFF