VIJAY LALWANI

MOST PEOPLE LIKE ELVIS PRESLEY BECAUSE THEY ARE fans of his music. Some adore him for his showmanship, his larger-than-life persona, his cult status, even his messy life. Now meet someone who worships the ground Elvis walks on because he was an introvert, happiest when he was pottering around at home, because he would sleep all day and work all night and because he had a tiny band of friends. No list of characteristics could be more similar to Vijay Lalwani. Little wonder then, that Lalwani, 31, the greenest horn in the Bollywood film brigade, finds himself inexplicably drawn to the King.

This is not all that’s peculiar about this director and scriptwriter. With absolutely no film background, in an industry fraught with nepotism, he walked into Farhan Akhtar’s office armed only with his script. Akhtar was so bowled over by it that he not only agreed to produce the film, but jumped on board to play the lead role and even roped in Deepika Padukone as his love interest.

The story gets even more unusual. Lalwani started his career as an art person in advertising (Ogilvy & Mather, Everest and McCann-Erickson) and went on to write copy, win Abby and Cannes Lion awards, start his own copy shop and finally toss it all up without turning a hair. “I realised I was happiest sitting at home and writing film scripts,” he says. “It was a form of escapism for me.”

So in he dived head first, much to the alarm of his parents who would rather he continue in the secure and extremely lucrative world of advertising. But Lalwani, who had been watching Hindi films on his parents’ VCR since he was four, wasn’t about to listen to any nay-sayers. “The way I look at it, there is only one thing I can do well – tell stories. When I was little, my grandmother would try to put me to sleep by telling me a story but invariably what would happen is that I would tell her stories till she fell asleep,” he says, grinning broadly. “I always have about 30 new story ideas sitting on the back-burner of my mind.”

Although the name of the film, Karthik Calling Karthik (scheduled to hit screens soon), misleads one into imagining that this is an art house film, the story is a psychological thriller about a lovable loser called Karthik who finds himself embroiled in a mysterious situation when he receives a call from a man named Karthik. “I know my story would appeal even to a camel trader if I can get him into the hall,” says Lalwani self-assuredly.

This innate confidence is Lalwani’s hallmark. Little seems to faze him. Not even the possibility of failure. “I’m not overconfident about my film, but right now, I’m savouring the moment,” he says adding, “A year ago I had nothing. Now at least I can say I’ve made my first film. Good or bad, I’m here to earn my stripes.”

ABHISHEK CHAUBEY

IT MUST HAVE BEEN A PROPITIOUS MOMENT WHEN Abhishek Chaubey sauntered into Vishal Bhardwaj’s office. That exact harmonious second when all the stars align. The former was a disgruntled film student, fed on a staple diet of art house films, dismayed to see the mediocre fare that mainstream directors served up. The latter was a music director with a vision, who wanted to shake things up by creating his own brand of realistic, edgy cinema. Together, they have given us gems like Maqbool, Omkara, The Blue Umbrella and Kaminey. And now their latest offering, Ishqiya, directed by Chaubey and produced by Bhardwaj.

Very few first-time directors make a realistic, bawdy film on a romance between criminals set in a village in Uttar Pradesh. That too, one that this director candidly admits deserves an A certification for its risqué scenes and language, not to mention the heavy undercurrent of sexuality between the characters played by Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah and Vidya Balan.

But then Chaubey is no ordinary first-timer. Meticulously schooled in the Bhardwaj brand of cinema, nothing is more interesting to Chaubey than sitting with Bhardwaj and breathing life into imaginary characters. “Collaborative film writing is a very enjoyable process. Vishal and I have written so many scripts together. Many of those, we have already out-lived. But that kind of work never goes waste. It’s the film school training I never had,” he says.

Their creative involvement really began when Bhardwaj needed an associate director for Makdee and Chaubey, 32, came on board. “He had just started writing the script for Maqbool at the time and showed it to me,” says Chaubey. “I knew I was looking at the first script of its kind.”

Since then, Chaubey has co-written Omkara and Kaminey with Bhardwaj, while the writing of The Blue Umbrella was entirely his baby. “Vishal asked me to develop Ruskin Bond’s 20-page-story into a 90-minute film. In doing so, he planted the hunger to write in me.”

A common background and ethos is what really makes this alliance click. Both were raised in middle-class families in small-town UP, went to Hindu College in Delhi and share the same film sensibility. It was during Omkara though, that Chaubey told Bhardwaj he wanted to direct a film and Ishqiya (which is ready to release later this year) happened.

While Chaubey is finally living his dream, he says that directing is arduous and nothing like he envisioned. “It’s extraordinarily strenuous physically, mentally and emotionally. You have to deal with constant humiliation. I have already picked up the pieces so many times,” he says a tad morosely.

For someone with Chaubey’s track record and experience, you couldn’t find a more self-effacing guy. He never praises himself, broods endlessly about trivial details and is the first to pick holes in anything he does. He insists he’s not being modest when he says, “I’m not exceptionally gifted like Vishal. He has such grasp on character. This is his rare gift. I don’t know what mine will be.”

Yet, it’s not failure that worries Chaubey. It’s success. “I feel Indians cannot handle success. We get trapped in our own image. Failure, we blame on God, and take all the credit for success.” For him the benefits of success are simple: “It will give me more bargaining power to make the kind of films I want to and not what others want me to make.”

Subscribe to Verve Magazine or buy the Verve issue on stands now!