The Hindu Business Line : Bollywood blues?

But then the tongue-in-cheek approach to life is apparent in Kukunoor's style of filmmaking, something that audiences have come to expect and admire about him.

When the NRI chemical engineer from the US gave up a lucrative career as an environmental consultant and used his personal savings to write, produce, direct and act in Hyderabad Blues in 1998, even he did not expect the phenomenal response that the film had. By no means a `commercial masala' film, with not even a known star cast, the film broke box-office records. Kukunoor proved that a low-budget film could make it big with the right presentation and, that too, without the support of big banners.

The success led to a passionate affair with filmmaking in India, despite the fact that he was used to a different style of working in the US. And movies such as Rockford, Bollywood Calling and Teen Deewarein followed — the latter won him a Filmfare award for `Best Original Story'.

His recent offering, Hyderabad Blues 2 is the sequel to Hyderabad Blues. On what inspired the sequel, he says, "I didn't consciously want to make a sequel because you run the risk of ruining something good. But, last year, there was a point when I was writing a script and I thought about what Varun and Ashwini would be doing years later and the script just wrote itself. The driving force of the sequel was a good script."

So, is he a full-time filmmaker now? "I hope so! After making five films I can't think of going back to engineering," says the director who spends half the year in the US. How did Kukunoor survive the chaotic world of Bollywood? "I operate out of Hyderabad and have stayed outside the purview of mainstream Bollywood because I have always made films on my own terms," he replies.

But he has worked with mainstream stars like Juhi Chawla and Jackie Shroff and, if sources are to be believed, is even planning to do Tandoor, a film with the Big B. Is he planning a shift to Bollwood? "Well, there is no shift per se. Some films justify casting Bollywood actors. But I shift back just as easily to making films like Hyderabad Blues, which had no `stars'. I believe in the script and the rest will follow," is his explanation. "I make films because I believe in the story and not because I have an agenda. It's not the angst of the NRI that I wanted to show in Hyderabad Blues, but just the fact that it was a good story."

The autobiographical element has been apparent in his films so far, but Kukunoor hopes that "the more films I make, the less I am going to draw from my experiences."

All of his films have been made in Hyderabad and though he has stayed clear of Bollywood, he has used Hindi cinema to communicate with his audiences.

Why hasn't he made films in his mother-tongue — Telugu? "Well, I speak English first, Hindi second and Telugu third," he says. "During my growing up years, we shuttled a lot between Chennai and Hyderabad. And Dad made us learn Hindi, but I never learnt to read and write Telugu. But my sensibility is not even remotely connected to Hindi cinema. It's mostly American cinema, so I bring in those elements into my films, using Hindi — the language I am most comfortable with," he explains.

Commenting on the crossover genre of filmmaking, he says, "Crossover cinema doesn't imply good cinema, because a good film is dependant on a good story. Everyone mistakenly thinks that once we have crossover cinema and multiplexes, we are going to have amazing films. But most of them have flopped and most of the money that the multiplexes make are from the bigger commercial films. You should have a really good crossover film if people are going to shell out Rs 150 in a Mumbai multiplex. At the end of the day, the movie has to speak for itself and not the genre," he says.

But aren't there more filmmakers now who are able to make different kinds of films — horror, crime, war, thrillers or romance — in comparison to the earlier trend of formula films? "I agree, but it's a relatively small number. The majority are bad love stories. Bollywood doesn't seem to want to move away from that."

Hyderabad Blues is the film closest to his heart "because before that I was an engineer and, after making it, I became a filmmaker." On how he feels on his transition to a successful filmmaker, Kukunoor says, "That's a slow and painful realisation. But in a field which is so fickle, you are only as good as your last film. I have no illusions about the ephemeral nature of this industry. Though I was excited I could make more films because of the success of Hyderabad Blues, I never harboured any notions that I had arrived."

On his lifestyle, which requires him to travel between India and the US frequently, he says that he has got the best of both the worlds and "made my own culture." He distributes his films under the "Nue Cinema Inc" banner in the US with partner Elahe Hiptoola.

On plans of entering television, particularly since UTV has distributed Hyderabad Blues 2 for him, he says, "The production values in television are so bad. I can, maybe, do 13 one-hour episodes, but never 53 episodes because quality will suffer."

Will Kukunoor make an issue-based film? "I don't like to use films as a platform to get a viewpoint across, although you do tend to do it unconsciously as a scriptwriter. But I do know that I want to make a film in every genre and I will do that, hopefully, before the sun sets."

Picture by S. Subramanium

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