It’s difficult to find fault with the explanation behind Bollywood director-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s first foray into Hollywood. On April 9, the producer of blockbusters such as the extraterrestrial comedy PK and the hit Munnabhai comedy franchise, will release his English-language debut, Broken Horses, in the UAE.
“This is just my madness,” said Chopra in an interview with tabloid!.
“If you apply logic, after the success of a film like 3 Idiots, I should have gone on to make 4 Idiots or 5 Idiots. Why would I quit everything and spend almost five years in a desolate Mexican desert and make a film?”
Broken Horses, which is written, directed and produced by Chopra, is set against the backdrop of a drug war on the American-Mexican border and is a tale of two brothers with different ideologies. It stars Vincent D’Onofrio, Anton Yelchin, Chris Marquette and Maria Velvarde.
“I am crazy about cinema. I have this burning passion to do new things and that passion rules out my rational self. Because rationally, this move makes no sense … but this is what I want to do. This is my legacy and this is who I am. Like I said in my film, 3 Idiots: ‘If you follow your passion and pursue excellence, success will follow’.”
It looks like he’s already enjoying some glory. Avatar director James Cameron and Gravity filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron have already given their stamps of approval; with Cameron calling the $20-million (Dh73.4 million) feature an “artistic triumph” in his testimonial.
“I am just loving it! I feel very proud and the best part is that they have gone out of their way to give out press statements. They normally praise you in private. After all, it’s their reputation at stake. And if you think the film is stupid, your first thought is how did James Cameron get sold on that? For me, it’s a proud moment for all of us — the entire South Asian community.”
Chopra, 62, describes Broken Horses as a film that explores the tenuous relationship between two siblings and is not necessarily a grim account of the bloody reign of the drug cartels marked by gun fights and corruption.
“When you see this film, it will bring you closer to your family ... What has happened here is that I have taken my personality from India and my Bollywood roots. With those roots, I have gone and made a film. During my first day of filming, I broke a coconut in the middle of a highway. I don’t do that normally in India for my films. But I did that because I want to say, ‘I am from India and I want to make this movie.’”
Smashing coconuts is a Hindu ritual Indian filmmakers use to make sure filming goes smoothly. Chopra may have embraced his Indian filmmaking sensibilities, but he claims that Broken Horses was a crash course in unlearning. Director Cuaron wasn’t off the mark when he said that when an Indian mathematician goes to Harvard, he applies the same science. But a filmmaker will have to practise a different art form, if he goes down that route.
“We [Bollywood filmmakers] are over-the-top and we insert songs [wherever possible]. We are OTT in the sense that even our dialogue [Mum, where are you?] is said with such emotion and drama. Sometimes, I may think I am not a part of that, but the truth is that I am. In Deewar, when the actor says [I have my mother] — how can I ever outgrow that moment?,” said Chopra, alluding to the iconic temple scene from Amitabh Bachchan-Shashi Kapoor blockbuster. That line — which underlined the importance of family among two warring brothers — has been proudly replicated in several films and spawned numerous jokes.
At heart, Chopra cannot shake off his Indian roots, but he didn’t shy away from taking on some painstaking legwork. Chopra spent a year travelling all over New Mexico, Arizona and Texas and spent five years delving deep into Broken Horses.
“I wanted to get to know the people and to get to know the terrain. Now if people are liking the movie, it’s because I have spent so much time of my life studying their culture. It took Abhijat Joshi, who has written PK and 3 Idiots, and me four years to write the film. The film was shot in 33 days, but it was the writing and research that took a lot of time.” Initially, big stars such as Nicholas Cage and rising talents Jeremy Renner of The Bourne Legacy fame were in talks to do his film.
“I did exactly what I would have done in India. I took the right actor for the right role. Even if you see Munnabhai, you may wonder why I didn’t take a Khan … I didn’t cast a big name because Sanjay Dutt was the right actor for the role. I had some big stars who were interested … but I made this film with no fear … For me movies are all about putting a part of yourself out there.”
Back home in India, Chopra may be a name to reckon with but in the West it was a different story.
“I felt as if I had just come out of a film school. I felt so young again because people were only judging me by my script. Nobody knew who Vidhu Vinod Chopra was and nobody gave a [expletive] about where I came from. Anything Bollywood was a problem, because people looked down upon [it]. If anything, it was a disqualification. So it was unbelievable when I went in with a script and people were liking what I had written,” said Chopra. Perhaps, this is how Steven Spielberg would have felt if he went to Mars and presented a script to Martians, he added.
For Chopra, Broken Horses will be a “fitting answer” to all those who doubt whether an Indian filmmaker can flourish in unfamiliar territory.
“Broken Horses is not about drug wars. It’s about family and brotherhood. Secondly, it will make any South Asian proud because somewhere inside you — whether you like it or not — there’s that [feeling] that Hollywood looks down upon us. This will prove that we can do as good, if not better.”
Broken Horses is out in the UAE this Thursday.
