SAMARJIT DASGUPTA

FIGHTER PILOT ON VACATION!
Leaf through a copy of producer-director Samarjit Dasgupta’s curriculum vitae, and you’ll be left wondering what on earth the former pilot and academic is doing in filmdom. The war veteran undertook many a sortie during the wars of 1965 and 1971 as an ace Air Force fighter pilot, during one of which he was even se-verely wounded. Retiring after 29 years of distinguished service in 1992, Dasgupta held several key positions in defence institutes, chief among them being as head of department at the Institute of Defence Manage-ment, Hyderabad and guest-professor at the IAS Management Studies Institute, Mussoorie... SCREEN chats up the filmmaker come lately.

HE’S a former Air Force pilot and academician, who’s tutored more than 1600 management experts, a graduate from Staff College, Wellington, Imperial College, London and MBA from the University of Delhi. Now, he’s on a well-deserved holiday in filmdom.

Samarjit Dasgupta avers he would have been a filmmaker long ago, rather than a fighter pilot, had it not been for some unavoidable reasons. Now, the much-decorated veteran is finally doing what he’s yearned to do all along, making a film. Bosom pal, lyricist Javed Akhtar, has written all the songs of Pyar Ki Dhun, the film Dasgupta is making, featuring daughters Heena and Swati in lead roles.

Not that the medium of cinema is new to Dasgupta. Having done a short course in film direction from an institute in the UK, he has dabbled in the medium all along. He made a tele-film for Doordarshan and a few scientific and technical films for the United Nations and premier institites like BARC, ONGC and NIFT. It’s the charm of the big screen that has finally lured him into Bollywood. “I want to bring dignity to filmmaking and intend to make meaningful, entertaining films. A film should appeal to the eye, mind and glands, but the core of any good cinema is the underlying emotions there in,” says the filmmaker who makes his debut on the silver screen with Pyar Ki Dhun.

A person with such an academic background would obviously come out with a logical set-up. Hence, it becomes pertinent to ask him what his film is all about. “I feel the media of cinema gives a huge creative opportunity for anyone to make a film with a sensitive, valuable message to society. My film is a contemporary definition of our lives today. Human relationships are under threat, and the film hopes to bring the consequences to the surface. The film appeals to the youth of the country and it is basically targetting that class of the audience. It is the interpretation of basic emotions of love at different levels. The film deals with the changing circumstances and values of a smalltown girl who goes abroad to study while her horizons and approach to life widen. She spurns her village lover who pursues her even to the UK, where almost the entire film has been shot. Milind Soman attempts to break his usual image in playing the role of a rustic conman all through the film,” says Dasgupta outlining the film briefly.

Almost 70 percent of the film has been shot in the UK and made on a lavish scale. Dasgupta discloses that the huge budget is owing to to the fact that he made no compromise on the production values, and it was shot on locations where no Hindi film has ever been shot. He claims he is the first filmmaker to shoot the millennium celebrations on the river Thames in London on new year’s eve, with the Big Ben in the backdrop.

Apart from the visual treat and the grand budget, what does the film have in terms of the storyline and performances? The story of Pyar Ki Dhun is penned by Das-gupta’s better half, Dr Shobha, a reputed New Delhi-based gynaecologist. “I have obeserved life at very close quarters, from the most touching to the most bizarre and I have sampled the extremes of human traits during the course of my work. I have woven all these enriching experiences into the story,” says Dr Shobha.

Dasgupta has denied himself the luxury of working with the major stars. “I feel it’s the content of a film which should hold one’s interest, not the stars. And when I knew the cast could deliver what I wanted out from it, why would I want to sign a bigger starcast? It’s basically a very different film from the run of the mill kind of cinema we see these days. I have portrayed what I felt as a filmmaker about the youth of India, and my cast has been more than competent,” says Dasgupta, justifying his decision to work with a relatively new cast, which includes his daughters.

Samarjit Dasgupta appears to be equally confident about Shantanu Mitra, who makes his debut as a music director. “It’s true that music has become a commercial proposal these days but there is no hard and fast rule that new music directors cannot deliver the best. I feel it’s not the name but the music that sells in the market. Shantanu has to his credit Shubha Mudgal’s hit Ke Saawan. I am well aware of his tremendous talent and potential. In fact, Javed Akhtar hails him as the best musical talent to watch,” says Dasgupta.

The filmmaker has crossed his first hurdle of making a full length feature film without any major hiccups. The film is already in the dubbing stage and is being planned for an early release. So what’s next? Next on Dasgupta’s anvil is a woman-centric, message-oriented film. And he has also been commisioned by the UK government to make a feature film in English.

Evidently, we haven’t heard the last on the ace fighter pilot.

Ali Peter John.

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