Delhi based author turns director at 70 Debesh Banerjee
Posted online: Jun 17, 2008 at 1601 hrs

New Delhi, June 17:: He is 70, an age at which most people worry about retirement benefits and go for long walks in the park with grandchildren, but Delhi-based author Sharat Kumar is ready with his first movie. You wouldn’t find snazzy trailers of Duvidha nor there be any red-carpet premieres at the PVR at Select Citywalk this Friday. For, the film is shot on a budget of less that Rs 1 crore, has theatre actors from the Capital crowding the credits, is based on Kumar’s own bestselling Hindi novel Lal Kothi Alvida and, believe it or not, the hall at the mall is the only place where the two-hour-long movie will be screened.

While Kumar is not sure how he would cut even — “I know this is a big risk. But PVR has promised me that they would screen it in other centres if it did well at Select Citywalk” — the former naval officer’s bravado is in full display. “I did not want to make a Bollywood-style movie. My film cost me only Rs 95 lakh. I don’t have established names in the film since that would have hiked up the budget and I believe theatre actors capture the true essence of acting. They understand how a particular role needs to be essayed,” says Kumar at his home in Safdarjung Enclave.

Incidentally, the book was earlier turned into an 82-episode serial for Doordarshan, much to his disappointment. “I was only game for 26 episodes but the producers wanted more. Before I knew it, the serial had turned into something totally different from my novel. And I want to rectify it with my movie,” says Kumar, about the film that shifts from the 1990 to the ’40s and even has three songs, including a mujra.

Well, he has two other novels and who knows if they would translate into a low-budget experiment on the celluloid, but next time he would like to do it a little more glamorously, maybe with Tabu or Nandita Das.