Mumbai: Filmmaker Priyadarshan reflected on his craft and the inevitable anxiety that eats him up before a Friday release. The veteran director also talked about his former assistant and Dhurandhar director Aditya Dhar. Priyadarshan praised Dhar for his skill and added that he did not teach him anything.
Speaking of brave filmmakers, Priyadarshan said, “Some people have guts. I’ve seen both kinds of people. One is Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who made Animal, and another is Aditya Dhar. I asked them, ‘What gives you the confidence to work on a four-hour film?’ They said, ‘It will work, sir.’ It’s against all the theory of a hit film. No producer will ever allow you to make a four-hour film, but the conviction of the director is the ultimate thing,” to India Today.
He then talked about Dhar, who assisted him on Aakrosh and Tezz. Priyadarshan said, “I never taught Aditya anything, but he learned. That is the only way we can make films. I never went to any school, I just watched films and learned from masters. In the same way, Aditya, I don’t know if I taught him anything, but by being with me, he learned by himself.”
He added, “He did things better than me, and that’s how Dhurandhar happened.”
Meanwhile, Priyadarshan, soon to release Bhoot Bangla, talked about his anxieties as a director. “Every time a film releases, I have tension for two days because the first two days are your test, whether you are right or wrong. Even after 40 or 50 years, I have the same tension for every release. I just want to know how people will accept it,” said the filmmaker.
Bhoot Bangla, starring Akshay Kumar, Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal, etc, is expected to release on April 10.