Anant Mahaversatile

Anant Mahadevan, with serials like Chamatkar, Ghar Jamai and Hera Pheri, had almost become a specialist in directing comedies but as he says, “I had always nurtured the ambition to direct a drama or a thriller, but my track record was always for comedy. The only serious work I had done was 10 episodes of Suspense Hour and Rishtey. All the producers and channels wanted me to direct another comedy only for them.”

When he received the offer to take over Main after 15 episodes, he was initially a little hesitant in accepting it, “but when the channel and producer both insisted, I realised that if I don’t accept it then someone else will.” So Anant decided to adopt a teenaged child and modify his sensitivity into action and drama.

Within a week, while sticking to the original concept, Anant changed the script and added quite a few tracks in the story. It is a move he is very ecstatic about, because it was his episode Nos. 16, 17 and 18 that fetched him the nomination for the SCREEN-Videocon awards. “Initially, when I read about the nominations, I was sure of Hera Pheri, but I didn’t know about the episodes numbers of Main. When the channel told me that the episodes submitted were my work, I was highly inspired. Two serials belonging to two different genres with the same (lead) artiste (Shekhar Suman) were nominated. As a director, it was an ach-ievement for me,” says Anand with obvious pride.

Anant uses an entirely different approach for both the serials. “We keep cracking one-liners and jokes while shooting for Hera Pheri. It gets everyone into the mood. But during the shooting of Main, the atmosphere is a complete turnabout. In fact, at times Shekhar gets so worked up after an intense scene, that he shoots off the handle by the end of it. And such impromptu scenes come out very well on screen. If Main goes a little soft and sentimental in one episode, viewers start objecting,” he quipped. Main has a male protagonist. Anant feels that in order to keep the female viewers hooked, it has to have a certain element of drama and sophistication.
Secondly, he doesn’t want the audience to pity his character. He would rather they disliked, but understand his arrogance. “That’s why we take them down memory lane to explain his complex personality. In the end, they will love this star.”

Currently, Anant is sticking to the 52-episode concept but if the audience response remains very positive, he may extend it by another 26 episodes. “How long can you stretch such stories where the hero has a stipulated time to live?” he asks. He prefers to call it drama instead of soap, because they have used situations that have actually happened in tinsel town. Then they have shot at actual locations like Gaiety-Galaxy cinema halls, which has added real life and thrill to the story.
The other two projects that he is excited about are Alwida Darling for Zee and Cincinati Bublaboo for STAR Plus. Alwida Darling has Farouque Shaikh and Varsha Usgaonkar in the lead. It is a take-off on divorce and is scheduled for March on Zee. Cincinati Bublaboo is produced by Rakhi and Rajiv Tandon and it is slated for STAR Plus in summer this year. “Earlier, STAR was suggesting an office comedy but that idea is stale. So I suggested that we place it in a shopping mall. Now, a big set is being constructed at Kamalistan Studios. This will be a comedy of errors,” he explained. As is his usual practice, Anant himself is writing the initial few episodes of this serial. It has 13 major characters besides several other artistes.

Anant is also working on a thriller, Astra (arms), for Shekhar Suman’s production company, 7:30 PM. According to him, it will have at least one major action scene in each episode and it will have episodic stories. This too is for STAR Plus. “It is an expensive project of 60 minutes’ duration. We will air it by the end of this year. By the time this comes on air, I would have phased out my two current programmes,” he informs.
His other big project Shah Vs Shah with Satish Shah and Farouque Shaikh is on the hold due to its very high budget. Anant cannot find any takers for it and is waiting for the channel budgets to expand a little more. He is also working on a film Yeh Dil Maange More, that he plans to launch in the first half of this year. “We are going to finalise the stars and then announce it. It is a big project.” It’s time for him to get busy with a variety of programmes but in his view, “I would rather keep lesser assignments and give better results. That’s why I try not to take more than two projects at a time.”

Neelam Gupta