EXCLUSIVE! Kushan Nandy: Chitrangda Singh made me look like a villain
| Aug 21, 2017, 19:20 IST
It hasn't been an easy ride for director Kushan Nandy to put 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' together. The film was nearly shelved a couple of times. His heroine, Chitrangada Singh, walked out. And if that wasn't enough, he had to fight the CBFC to get his film out with compromising on the content.
Bring this up and Kushan says, "If your last film hasn’t been successful, the industry is cruel to you — stingy to give you another chance. I’ve made two movies earlier and since they hadn’t worked wonders at the box office, it became difficult to even put this one together. Also, we had to combat difficulties in West Bengal. There’s some kind of a political mafia which supports the film federation there. So, we were forced to hire an entire group of technicians and junior artistes, the latter increasing in number every day. We were blackmailed and almost put at gunpoint to pay what we didn’t even owe them. The producers couldn’t sustain that after a point. Ultimately, we filed an FIR and called off our shoot in the state. That was a huge setback. However, I continued making the film. Nawaz also believed in the script as much as I did. I braved everything for his conviction in the film.
When asked about Chitrangada, who had walked out of the film citing the explicitness of the lovemaking scenes as her concern, Kushan says, "I was too shocked to even react to what was being hurled at me, as I don’t speak in the way Chitrangada quoted me. It was a personal attack. Without delving much into the past, all I can tell you is that intimate scenes were the last of the reasons for her exit. Many issues kept creeping in while we were shooting, but I don’t think they need to be highlighted because I don’t want to pull anyone down. She made me look like a villain. I wish her luck, but I know for sure that I don’t want to associate with her again."
Bring this up and Kushan says, "If your last film hasn’t been successful, the industry is cruel to you — stingy to give you another chance. I’ve made two movies earlier and since they hadn’t worked wonders at the box office, it became difficult to even put this one together. Also, we had to combat difficulties in West Bengal. There’s some kind of a political mafia which supports the film federation there. So, we were forced to hire an entire group of technicians and junior artistes, the latter increasing in number every day. We were blackmailed and almost put at gunpoint to pay what we didn’t even owe them. The producers couldn’t sustain that after a point. Ultimately, we filed an FIR and called off our shoot in the state. That was a huge setback. However, I continued making the film. Nawaz also believed in the script as much as I did. I braved everything for his conviction in the film.
When asked about Chitrangada, who had walked out of the film citing the explicitness of the lovemaking scenes as her concern, Kushan says, "I was too shocked to even react to what was being hurled at me, as I don’t speak in the way Chitrangada quoted me. It was a personal attack. Without delving much into the past, all I can tell you is that intimate scenes were the last of the reasons for her exit. Many issues kept creeping in while we were shooting, but I don’t think they need to be highlighted because I don’t want to pull anyone down. She made me look like a villain. I wish her luck, but I know for sure that I don’t want to associate with her again."