Not the end for Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Dressed in a loose white kurta with hair falling over his forehead, producer-director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra looks every bit of the intellectual creative person that he is. And his passion for cinema is apparent when he starts talking. Rakeysh, who is awaiting the release of his next venture Teen Thay Bhai and is planning to re-release Delhi 6 with a changed ending, chats up with CS:

Fresh take
After the failure of Delhi- 6, I was heartbroken. I went into depression for a couple of months. I've decided to re-release the film because I feel that people haven't understood the story. We made it with a budget of '39 crore, which was too high. If we had made it with '20 crore, it wouldn't be labelled as a flop. It was a very niche subject and wouldn't have appealed to the masses. This time round, Abhishek Bachchan will die in the film as I had originally planned.

I am also planning to make a film on Milkha Singh called Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. As we know, he was called the Flying Sikh and earned laurels for India at the Rome Olympics. But very few know that as a child he witnessed his parents being lynched right in front of his eyes. So, his story is a very humane and inspirational one. I feel that every Indian should know his story and be proud to be an Indian. I feel that if filmmakers have a story that they are dying to tell the world, they must translate them into films.

What's your story?
I can watch any film where the story is told sensibly with a lot of panache. My criteria is the same as any other moviegoer's, I want an engaging storyline that touches my heart. My favourite directors are Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, Francis Ford Coppola, V Shantaram, Oliver Stone, Vijay Anand, Federico Fellini, Mehboob Khan and others. I have learnt a lot from Mani Sir (Ratnam). The way he blends complex subjects into a commercial format is amazing. Though he's considered as a veteran, he's very young at heart.u00a0

Ad effect
I don't think ad filmmakers who turn directors have any added advantage. Films are a very personal medium. The films that work are stories that are told with a certain level of passion. In fact, I feel that ad filmmakers rely more on form, while films are more about content. You can't make any generalisations here.

Who: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
What: Talking about his upcoming projects
Where: At his Bandra office

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