Some thoughts about Vidhu Vinod Chopra's book

Pics: Vidhu Vinod Chopra and his wife Anupama at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi; the cover of the book

On March 23, 2017, I was at the Aspinwall House to see some exhibits of the Kochi Muziris Biennale. As I was wandering about, I got a ‘ping’ sound on my mobile. The SMS said that noted Bollywood director Vidhu Vinod Chopa was in the premises with his wife, the film critic Anupama Chopra. So, without further ado, I went in search and found them.

They were both friendly and kind.

As I started chatting, I told Anupama I had read her book, ‘First Day, First Show’.

She beamed.

Anupama is a person who smiles a lot.

But then, I added, “Isn’t that the only book?”

Her smile froze. And she said, “I’ve written others.”

“Okay, sorry, I will definitely check it out,” I said, and brought the smile back to Anupama.

Later, I checked and realised she had written seven other books. This type of slip-up happens when you meet people without doing proper research.

I made the same blunder when I accidentally met the noted psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar at the same venue and said I had read his path-breaking book, ‘Inner World’. Then, like with Anupama, I made the same blunder of asking whether he had written any more books.

“Yes, I have,” he said, a little coldly.

Later research revealed he had written 24 books, fiction as well as nonfiction.

His wife, the German-born Katharina, was with him and she was also an artist and writer. Didn’t know that. Anyway, thankfully I did not make any blunders about her.

But these were rare-missteps. Nearly always, I researched deeply before meeting the subject.

Two indirect messages are sent.

a) You show respect to the person.

b) The interviewee realises you are dead-serious about the interaction.

This always results in a good interview.

I wrote the piece on Vinod in 20 minutes, to meet the deadline of the features page, which always goes early to press. I went to the media room, borrowed a laptop and wrote it. So there are no surprises, it is a slight piece.

I usually avoid fast writing because I have too much reverence for writing, to do it casually.

Anyway, here is the article:

“The art works are fascinating”

Noted Bollywood film director Vidhu Vinod Chopra talks about his experiences in the Kochi Muziris Biennale, as well as his upcoming film

By Shevlin Sebastian

Bollywood director Vidhu Vinod Chopra breaks out into a smile as he looks into a telescope on a first floor sea-facing balcony at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi. This is an installation work of the French artist Francois Mazabraud. “Nice,” he says. His wife Anupama, a noted film critic, also breaks into a smile.

“This is my first visit to the Biennale,” says Vidhu, who is clad casually in a blue T-shirt and cotton trousers. “I am obsessed with cinema, so coming here is a liberation for me. I am enjoying an art form which is outside of cinema. And the works I have seen so far have been fascinating. What adds to the charm is the beautiful ambience of Fort Kochi.”

Both Vidhu and Anupama are a playful couple. At the ‘Going Playces’ exhibition of artist Orijit Sen, they took up the challenge of placing pieces with magnet ends into the ‘From Punjab with love’ painting. “Wow, this is cool,” says Vidhu, as he places a piece in the correct slot. Later, both take up a similar challenge in the Charminar exhibit.

Meanwhile, on the career front, Vidhu is putting the finishing touches to his script of his next movie. The theme: the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, from the 1980s to the present time.

This theme is not a surprise. Vidhu was born and brought up in Srinagar. “Kashmir is very close to my heart,” he says. “The movie is going to be an epic.” The shooting will begin in September. And the locations will be in different parts of Kashmir.

When asked if it is safe, Vidhu says, “I go to Kashmir every year. It is as risky as anywhere else in the world. Maybe, because of the recent terrorist attacks, Paris may be more risky now. Tell me which place is not risky today? That is the world we are living in now.”

He has not selected the cast, as yet. But he is hoping to release it sometime next year. “I don’t worry about the release date,” says the maker of hits like ‘1942: A Love Story’ and ‘Parineeta’. “The film will somehow make its way into the world” (this was ‘Shikhara’, which was released in 2020).

(The New Indian Express, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)

Images of Vidhu and Anupama came to my mind when I recently came across the book, ‘Unscripted — Conversations on life and cinema’ by Vidhu with his friend, the scriptwriter Abhijat Joshi (published by Ebury Press in 2021). The duo, along with director Rajkumar Hirani, had produced blockbusters like ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’, ‘3 Idiots’, ‘PK’ and ‘Sanju’.

This book is an easy read. In my first attempt, I finished about 50 pages of the 180-page book. Essentially, the story is about how a boy from a mohalla in Srinagar made it big in Bollywood after an enormous struggle. This struggle came as a surprise when later, as you read on, you realise Ramanand Sagar, a Bollywood insider, who made the 78-part serial of the Ramayana, that became widely popular, was Vidhu’s half-brother.

But the link helped now and then. When Vidhu applied to the Film and Television Institute of India, at Pune, he seemed to have got in, because two of the judges, the film director Hrishikesh Mukherjee and the writer Krishan Chander seemed to be aware of Vidhu’s relation to Ramanand.

In a free-flowing conversation, Vidhu and Abhijat talk about the films that had a big impact on the former, his first marriage, second and third marriages, his experiences making short films, his Bollywood career, his interactions with Hollywood stars and directors, and his depressing experience of taking legendary director Ritwik Ghatak, who had fallen sick, to Ruby Hall Clinic in Pune. Because none had money, Ritwik  was lodged in the general ward.

Ritiwk played an important role in Vidhu’s life.

Here is a snippet from the conversation: “Did you know my name ‘Vidhu Vinod’ came from Ritwik Ghatak? My birth name is Vinod Kumar Chopra. One day Ghatak declared: ‘What kind of name is that? Binod Kumar Chopra? You should have a majestic and powerful name like mine — Ritwik Ghatak’. So he suggested I call myself ‘Bidhu Binod Chopra’. He pronounced my name as Bengalis do and it was on that day he planted the idea in my mind to use the name inspired by him.”

The book has many such anecdotes. And I especially liked Vidhu’s attitude towards life: “If you analyse the problems we face, you will find 95 percent are actually created or imagined; because genuine problems only concern health and living in poverty.”

As an ardent RD Burman fan, all of us will be eternally grateful to Vidhu for giving the music assignment of the film, ‘1942 - A Love Story’ to the composer. This was at a time when RD was going through an intense career slump. In response, RD produced the immortal songs which will remain etched forever in Bollywood history.