“I am not cut out to make arty stuff like say Gaj Gamini or for that matter Hari Bhari”

RAJAT MUKHERJEE tells JYOTHI VENKATESH

Bollywood director Rajat Mukherjee, known for his films such as Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya , Love In Nepal and Road, passed away in the early hours on Sunday morning in Jaipur after a long battle with illness! To offer heartfelt condolences to the departed soul on behalf of bollyy.com and Mayapuri, we reproduce an interview of RAJAT MUKHERJEE by JYOTHI VENKATESH taken twenty years ago for the promotion of his film Road.

Rajat Mukherjee literally got his break as a director on a silver platter from Ramgopal Varma. Contrary to what people believe, Rajat had never assisted Ramgopal Varma as his assistant.”I came from Delhi to Mumbai and met Ramu when he was almost completing Mast .Ramu let me hang around and observe him on the sets. I went along with him for location hunting for songs. I had worked in an ad agency in Delhi. I had also worked as a production designer I had also directed an ad film for Music Today. I had dreams of becoming a film director”.

Ramu liked the subject of Pyar Tune Kya Kiya when Rajat narrated to him and even offered to produce and direct the film but Rajat told Ramu that he was keen on directing the film himself. Luckily for Rajat, Ramu immediately agreed to produce the film with Rajat as the director. “I wanted to drive home the point that love can have manifold interpretations. Love can have its own dark side. Every love story need not end pleasantly”, says Rajat.

Is Pyar Tune Kya Kiya a rehash of the Hollywood hit Fatal Attraction?  I ask him. Rajat denies that his film has got anything to do with the Hollywood blockbuster per se. “Hundreds of films have told the story of two women and a man in the past before and after Fatal Attraction. I feel that it is the treatment of a film that is of paramount importance, not just the story. My film will shock the wits out of you with its shocking end.”

As a director Rajat Mukherjee does not subscribe to the late Raj Kapoor’s theory that a director should fall in love with the heroine to extract the best out of her. “What is important in today’s context is that you should be able to make your heroine get excited with her character in order to get the best out of her. I decided on Urmila and Fardeen for my film because I had observed them at close quarters while I spent my time on the sets of Ramu’s Jungle and I thought it was better to work with actors who I knew were talented instead of trying to adjust and experiment with actors who I had never met before.”

Rajat confesses that he has learnt two important things from Ramu. One of them is that as a director you should have a water- tight screenplay since the story is the backbone of a film and not the star. Secondly, Rajat says that he has learnt to be open-minded as a director and be receptive to suggestions from even the lowliest spot -boy. “I learnt from Ramu not to play the director and keep your passion intact and continue to be a student of cinema”

Was Neha replaced by Sonali Kulkarni  in his film only because Ramu fell out with his protégé Manoj Bajpai whose girl friend Neha happens to be ?“It’s all bull shit. The entire blame for dropping Neha ought to go to me and not Ramu because as a debutant director I confess I developed cold feet when I realized that Neha lacked the body language and the conviction to carry the role after I had committed myself to her and took her audition.  Neha was very angry with me. In fact if I were in place of Neha, I would have slapped the director for promising to cast me in his film and then dropping me all of a sudden.”

Rajat does not wish to educate the viewers through his film. “My aim as a film maker is to communicate with the audience and entertain them. You see entertainment can be of various kinds. It is wrong to say that only comedies can entertain the viewers. If you ask me I’d say that even tearjerkers can also entertain the audiences. If films succeeds in making the viewer cry or laugh or even get scared, then the maker has succeeded in entertaining the audience. I’d like to call myself an entertainer. I am not cut out to make arty stuff like say Gaj Gamini or for that matter Hari Bhari”, Rajat Mukherjee signs off with a flourish