After three years of slogging (and that’s just the official time-span) Anurag Basu is finally ready with his next film, Jagga Jasoos.
So, Jagga Jasoos is finally releasing on July 14, after many delays and missed release dates. The softspoken director is a tad bit annoyed by questions around its delay, but talks about the problems he faced during its making, rather candidly.
We did go through a three-year process of filmmaking. But don’t all big films take some time to make it to the theatres? We had our share of problems, yes. And ideally, I’d have liked our film to have come in December 2017, during the holidays, since this is a film for children. But it didn’t happen. Nahin hua toh nahin hua (if it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen). July is good enough, although we missed the vacations.Anurag Basu, Filmmaker
For someone whose film has undergone a lot of re-shooting and a complete change in format, from being a non-dialogue musical to now being a part-musical, Anurag seems strangely relaxed. He sighs and corrects me.
Everyone seems to be misinformed about the format. We’ve made the film that we had decided to make. Yes, Jagga Jasoos is a full-on musical. Yes, everything in the film is said in a musical form. We never deviated from that format, although people wrote that we had changed our mind and were making the film in a different format. I never bothered to correct the errors being spread about Jagga Jasoos. Why should I? I was too busy trying to make the film that I wanted to make. Also, I feel there is no point in explaining what your film is about. Let it be seen. It will speak for itself.Anurag Basu
So how difficult was it to make a Broadway-styled musical in Hindi? Anurag surmises,
I wouldn’t say it’s a Broadway-styled musical. It is far more Indian in tone and treatment. And no, it wasn’t difficult for me to do the musical format on screen. I’ve done the format in theatre. So it was only a matter of translocating the format. My long-term musical collaborator Pritam is the real power behind Jagga Jasoos. He has given me all the songs and the music that I wanted. Without Pritam da Jagga Jasoos wouldn’t have been possible.Anurag Basu
And what about the Kishore Kumar biopic? Will Anurag pull that out of cold storage after Jagga Jasoos?
I am doing the Kishore Kumar film. But I don’t know when. It will be the next film. But I am not starting right away. I won’t be pressurized into working more than I want to. I make films for my pleasure. Filmmaking is important to me. But it is not the be-all end-all of my life. It is my bread and butter. But it is not my life and breath. I want time with my family and friends. To me, that time spent with my loved ones is as important the time spent making films. So when people ask me why Jagga Jasoos was delayed, I ask them ‘By which yardstick is Jagga Jasoos delayed? Has it gone over-budget?’ No! If a film has been made within a budget, then it cannot be considered as a delayed project. Period. I am saying that Jagga Jasoos is releasing whenever it had to. In between, Ranbir Kapoor’s Bombay Velvet happened. Like I told you, we’ve made a full-fledged musical. In the West, when they make musicals, they record the full soundtrack first and then make the film. We kept generating the music as we shot the film. This was a time-consuming process. We were creating our songs along with the narrative.Anurag Basu
It seems that Basu, the director of wonderful films like Gangster, Life In Metro and Barfi, has already put Jagga Jasoos behind him.
The entire marketing of the film is being handled by Ranbir Kapoor (who is the co-producer). I am now sitting back relaxed, waiting for July 14. We’ve made the film we wanted to make. Now the rest is up to the audience.Anurag Basu
(The love of Lata Mangeshkar's voice and Hindi movies - in that order - has propelled Subhash K Jha to the pursuit of journalism for over 30 years.)
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