Dibakar Bannerjee roots for Karan Johar

While making ‘Bombay Talkies’ with three other directors, Dibakar Bannerjee has gone through the most fun experience of his life. And he dreads leaving it behind.

Sighs the successful auteur, “When again would I get the chance to work so closely with three of my friends Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar? We were constantly in each other’s space enjoying each other’s works more than our own. Not only did we make these four films together we also promoted and marketed the finished product together. There was no sense of competition, only deep kinship.”

Tell him that his film has been most deeply appreciated of the films comprising ‘Bombay Talkies’ and Dibakar brushes off the compliment, “I am too close to my own work to judge its value. But my favourite film of the omnibus is Karan Johar’s. Not only has he yanked himself out of his comfort zone he has made sure that he hasn’t compromised on the telling of his story. I’ve seen the response to the gay kiss in his film. There’s pindrop silence. The audiences are stunned.”

About the presence of an Emu as a pivotal character in his film Dibakar laughs, “That was an idea given to me by two documentary filmmakers who helped me with the film. You see, Emu farming was a major enterprise in innumerable households across Maharashtra and other states some 4-5 years ago. It ruined so many families. The emu in Nawazuddin’s home is symbolical of his wasted life.”

Filled with praise for Nawazuddin’s performance Dibakar says, “I wanted to work with him for the longest time. For many years he had made a habit of doing brilliant cameos in film after film. For my film the biggest compliment Nawaz got came from Anurag Kashyap. After seeing my film Anurag said, ‘Yeh Nawaaz hai?’ He is just unrecognizable in every character he plays.”

Dibakar urgently needed Ranbir to make a cameo appearance in ‘Bombay Talkies’. “I needed him for one shot. But it was impossible to get his time. He was shooting far away for his film ‘Besharam’. Ranbir and I both want to work together. And it will happen soon.”

At the moment Dibakar is a hands-on producer for his erstwhile assistant Kanu Behl’s film ‘Titli’ which Dibakar and Yashraj films are co-producing together.

“I am not thinking of directing another film at the moment. I just want the out-of-the-box experience of ‘Bombay Talkies’ to get optimum viewership,” says Dibakar hopefully.