By Shailja Gupta
Head of Red Chillies Entertainment, USA
Lately, I have been obsessed with watching action thrillers and action comedy. I have watched almost 70 films in the last four months, to the point that my boyfriend has threatened to disown me if I don’t stop watching them!
The raw energy merged with slick special effects has completely taken over my mind. I keep directing action sequences in my head. Imagine a Bollywood hero, in Bourne Ultimatum’esque style, jumping from the Bandra Worli Sealink only to get enmeshed in the fishing nets of Mahim fishermen or a speedy bus which can’t go below 50 miles per hour on an Express highway in Mumbai!
Last month, I even bought a few pocket gadgets including the A.R Parrot Drone HDCam and Go-Pro Black III to experiment with shooting some fun sequences, since I can’t really afford real helicopters! This sudden interest in doing something completely different from my current and past experiences is second nature to me. I am a film-maker, visual artist, digital strategist, innovator and proud geek... Do I feel talented or flaky? Is being jack-of-alltrades instead of master of one the mantra these days or am I kidding myself?
The hunger and fear of missing out pushes me to experience and chase all kinds of skills. As the quantum of multi-tasking jumps manifold, I see myself quite at ease with this generation with shorter attention span.
True to this notion, while I chased one dream, one day I started doodling on my laptop and painted Bachchan’s famous Deewar pose. Suddenly it dawned on me that this is the 100th year of Indian cinema. Before I knew it, I saw myself reminiscing about all the Hindi films that I grew up on - from the black and white classics to the fun and frolic of the sixties, the advent of the angry young man to the reinvention of romance in the nineties and the enigmatic faces, characters and stories immortalized by film-makers over the decades.
These tales always transport me into a colourful world of fantasy and quasi reality, make me laugh and cry… They have been wonderful companions for hours on end. So I decided to pay a small tribute to these 100 brilliant years of artistic expression and created “Glimpses - 100 years of Indian Cinema” by combining stark features of iconic faces and persona with millions of hues.
This project too seemed to many like a ‘strategic’ career choice. The funny part is that there has never been any strategy; it just feels that all of my crazy pieces nicely fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s probably my passion and risk-taking nature combined with the qualities of the mentors I’ve been lucky to have, that guided me into my career choices.
Now the time has come for me to chase yet another dream - action adventure. Sadly, to the exception of Kathryn Bigelow, I don’t see any woman really attempting this genre worldwide. I wonder how difficult is it going to be in India for a woman to try and direct an action thriller? Is it that women directors are not allowed to direct action films or the perception in our minds stop us from attempting it in the first place? Can I or can I not leap into this crazy world of action? Only time will tell!
Feedback: shailja.me@gmail.com
