Casting actors with different temperaments was as easy as hailing a cab for director Milan Luthria when he shot Taxi No. 9211
Milan Luthria has taken the longest ride home and expects to save on gas. How else would you explain the actions of a director who chooses a cast that has nothing in common?
Nana Patekar and John Abraham are like chalk and cheese, or jet fuel and petroleum, if you wish. Yet they act together in Luthria's current release Taxi No. 9211.
The director tries to make sense of it all.
Entertainment Plus: Taxi No. 9211 is a very unique title.
Milan Luthria: The title of Taxi No .9211 is, you can say, inspired from Victoria No. 203 (released in 1972 and starring Navin Nischol and Saira Banu). But the inspiration ends there.
The title is meant to generate curiosity. There's humour in the film but it?s not slapstick. Nana has never been known for slapstick comedy and Abraham has never been known for his sense of humour, so if you say you don?t know what to expect, I guess I?ve won my case. Watch the film.
Do Nana Patekar and John Abraham play your main protagonists?
Yes. Nana plays a taxi driver as well as an insurance agent. John is an industrialist, but is actually just a spoilt kid who does not know where all the money he's rolling in is coming from and wishes to keep it that way.
It's only when a situation arises that the alarm bells ring and he tries to take stock. It's a novel story with one incident acting as the pivot. And that happens in Nana?s taxi with John as the passenger.
Abraham and Patekar don't match. Why did you select the two to star in Taxi No. 9211?
That?s a rhetorical question. They don?t match, that?s why. It?s interesting, the different permutations and combinations a director faces when he?s presented with a couple of actors who don?t match.
The ideas just take off from there. Nana is a natural and adapts himself to situations with ease, while John is talented and is eager to learn from the opportunities presented.
That's a good teacher, an eager student and a lesson well learnt. Their combination was potent, that?s what I felt and still feel.
How long did it take to get both actors to agree to the project?
As long as it took to read the script out to them. Rajat Arora has done a good job with the storyline.
Were there any difficulties while shooting?
Passers-by, the public, street urchins, maids, labourers, relate to Nana. They had to feel him, touch him, gape at him and that ate into our shoots.
The girls - and there were a lot of them around - couldn?t have enough of John. They had to stand two inches away from him and gape at him and gasp collectively.
And there were the permissions to be taken to shoot at different locales. Mumbai may be film city, but it is not the best place to get permissions for shoots. So yes, there were difficulties to meet deadlines, but we managed to reach home on time.
