Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh has opened up about what went wrong with his relationship with actress Vidya Balan, who he worked with on the hit 2012 thriller Kahaani.
After Kahaani, when Balan turned down his next film, Ghosh was shattered.
“It was unexpected. And I was disappointed. But it wasn’t Vidya’s fault at all. We build all these unreasonable expectations from all those whom we love. And then, when they are unable to fulfil these inflated expectations we are hurt,” he said.
“It isn’t fair to ourselves or to whose whom we love and expect to live up to our hopes. Even if she is your wife why would you expect her to have your meal on the table every day?”
So what happened?
“When I narrated a script to Vidya, she told me not to call it Kahaani 2. She felt it was not in that genre at all. She was completely right. But I was hurt. Anyway, I moved to other projects which for some reason didn’t materialise. For example, I was supposed to do a film adaptation of Keigo Huganshino’s Japanese novel The Devotion of Suspect X. It was to be produced by Balaji Telefilms. Only they know what went wrong. I was destined to do another film with Vidya only. So here I am.”
Four years after Kahaani, Ghosh and Balan are back together.
“I know of several heroines who give their heart, soul and limb to a character. But Vidya’s dedication is on another level of passion altogether. When she heard the script she decided the character will wear no make-up.
“And she stuck by her resolve, didn’t sneak make-up on when I wasn’t looking. You will see her looking like yesterday night’s chapatti [flat bread] in this film. For the sequence, where she runs out on the street after her daughter is kidnapped, Vidya lay on the busy Grand Trunk Road for two hours with heavy traffic all around her. Which actress would have the [guts] to do this?”
He says he is not bogged down by expectations.
“We did something unexpected in Kahaani four years ago. And when we had a pregnant woman running through the streets of Kolkata, people considered us mad. But you should have passion. Vidya has the passion. I have it too, I think. I know people expect another Kahaani from me and Vidya. We are going to tell another kahaani [story]. Hopefully, this one will grip audiences’ minds the same way as the first film.”
As for the expectations, the director says they are invalid.
“You can’t make a film based on what people expect from you. Kahaani 2 has been made because there is a story we want to tell and not because the audiences expect another Kahaani from me and Vidya.”
Don’t miss it!
Kahaani 2 is currently showing in the UAE.
