BILLBOARD
MAKING WAVES
SHORT TAKES
SOUTHERN SPICE
REVIEWS
ROUGH CUTS
MEMORIES
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT

Producer No 1

Vashu Bhagnani. Click for bigger pic!

Suparn Verma

Vashu Bhagnani looks a little too joyous to fit your image of a producer with a film on the blocks.

Clad in a bright yellow T-shirt and regular glasses in a designer frame, he sips water from a silver glass. He offers you water in a silver cup too.

Bhagnani looks rather young to have been the maker of four consecutive hits, Hero No 1, Coolie No 1, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya.

Born in Calcutta, he grew up to make his mark in textiles. He moved to Delhi and, soon after, shifted from textiles to construction. And at that time there was no better place for that than Bombay. And so he winged his way to Bombay.

"I made buildings in the Sher-e-Punjab area (in northwest Bombay). I finished my buildings in eight months while others took two years. They just like dilly-dallying around," he says. "I knew what I had to do. People were sometimes a little scared and thought the way I functioned was insane, but I went ahead anyway."

A still from Hero No 1. Click for bigger pic!

But you notice that he disposes of his past with such sketchiness that you wonder if it will argue investigation. He was an "average" student in college, and came from a very poor background. "I didn't have a family business," he says.

Things get clearer when he discusses his time in Bombay. He started out making tapes with his company, Puja Plastics.

"I met many music industry guys and they all kept me hanging on. One day I went to Tips and met Kumar Taurani. He asked me how many tapes could I deliver. I didn't know a thing about the business, so I asked him, 'How many can you order?'

"That stumped even him," laughs Bhagnani boyishly and then spends some time telling you in some detail about the way he functions.

"I am a very enterprising man," he tells you modestly. "If I see something I like, I get into it. If I see some potential in something, I back it up. If I like a five rupee note I'll put all my money behind it, and if I don't like that one crore note I won't touch it. I do things for enjoyment."

So was it his lifetime ambition to make films? Since his career graph is as vague as a B-grade film. "No, I never thought I'd produce films. All I ever wanted to do was meet Amitabh Bachchan," he admits.

With his family. Click for bigger pic!

How come he landed up in the business then?

"Well, I was sitting with Kumar Taurani one day, and I suggested why didn't they produce films? Taurani said he need a bigger infrastructure for that.

"But I has a very dear cousin who was making a film. That was when Salman just had two films released. I told Taurani to sign that lad and pay him 25 lakhs (Rs 2.5 million). it will pay off, I told him. At that time I'd seen and liked Khalnayak and was inspired to think that I too should do something."

And so it was that Bhagnani launched Puja Films with Coolie No 1 being his first film.

"I'd seen Shola Aur Shabnam and I'd thoroughly enjoyed the film. I said, 'Ma kasam, film aisi honi chaiye. Bas, we made Coolie No 1.

"I didn't know anything about the business but I know this that if you give me a little respect I will respect you even more. I treat all my actors with a lot of love and respect but I never get personal with any of them. I will shoot from 9-9, 9-6, after that you go home and I go home. I love my son and my wife very much and I like spending time with them."

The one friend he has in the industry is David Dhawan.

A still from Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Click for bigger pic!

"I was like this in all my businesses. I'll work with you and be cordial but that is the end. David, I've had lunch and dinner with him over 400 times. Now you can't not become friends with him."

Does the future of his film worry him?

"I am never worried what will happen to the film, because I think if you work with enough honesty everyone can like it. I like to make family films that everyone can enjoy; I can never make an art film or marginalise my audience. Biwi No.1 is a complete family entertainer. It's the story of every house where men do tend to stray. Even from the kids' angle, it's about how they feel about their parents."

But why release the film in the middle of the World Cup?

"May 28 for me is a better date than Diwali. People will see the World Cup, but they will also see my film. The fact that nowhere in the world where this film is releasing can you can get tickets for the next three days is proof enough."

Sooryavansham, Rajaji have all haven't done well, you argue. But his confidence remains unshakeable: "Every film is different, my film is totally different, look at the amount of publicity that we have done, everyone knows about it and what it's about." And he rejects that profits are a motive in his film-making.

A still from Biwi No 1. Click for bigger pic!

"Money is secondary to me; once you make a name everything follows. I had to take big risks to succeed. You can never move ahead if you don't take risks." Does he sleep the night before the release of a film?

"Of course, I sleep perfectly well. You see I can't do anything to make it a hit or a success once it's released. If it fails I'll try to figure out why? But then one day I'll have a flop. You can never always have hit after hit. I don't like knowing how other films fared and why they failed. It makes me very depressed."

And so he intends to be the No 1, as in his films. He laughs.

"Who doesn't want to be No 1?" he asks. But the fact is that Bhagnani has this thing for numerical statements. And his lucky numbers apparently are 1, 3 and 9.

So Bhagnani's office is in Flat No 1, as is his residence and his car's registration number is 333,

"If I have to pay a few lakhs extra to get it I don't mind," he says. We point out that his film released on May 28, and 2+8=10, and 1+0=... Right?

That catches him off-guard. You see the veneer of confidence finally crack and a blush of confusion mantle his brow. Bhagnani mumbles something inaudible and tries to change the topic. Well, long after we left him, we savoured the pleasure of having caught the No 1 off-guard.

EARLIER FEATURE:
The Biwi No 1 review