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Neeta Lal

Actress-turned-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt says her forte is to "make a three-crore film look like a 30-crore one".

At an age when Bollywood actresses are busy slapping on make-up to cavort around trees, here's one who gave it all up to "craft cinema that makes me happy". And despite father Mahesh Bhatt's looming presence, Pooja Bhatt morphed into her own person. Her production company, Fish Eye Network, has produced seven films in five years with three more under production. She is also working with Pakistani filmmakers to "promote cultural exchange", scout and hone young talent and continue her "quest for cinematic excellence".

The young producer's latest cinematic offering, Rog deals with a police officer falling in love with a dead person, a stunning woman whose murder he is investigating. The film has turned several trite Bollywood formulae on their head. It has the intense Irrfan Khan playing a romantic lead for the first time, real people (adman Suhel Seth and erstwhile model Shyamolie Varma) playing pretty much themselves, while South African model (yet another first as a female lead in a Bollywood film) Illene Hamman upped the film's glamour quotient.

"I'm delighted with the way Rog has turned out," says Pooja, who shot the film in a compact 38-day start-to-finish schedule, simultaneously managing to keep her budget under control. In fact, the producer's forte, as she admits, "is that I can make a three-crore film look like a 30-crore one." And for that, she says, one doesn't need to operate on a grand, opulent canvas with exotic locales and expensive stars. A good story well told, decent performances and catchy music, according to her, work just fine.

But what about reviews nixing Rog?

"Well, critics can say what they like," she says with the characteristic Bhatt nonchalance. "My viewers are my real barometer; they are my real constituency. And I've got very positive feedback from them. The film opened to about 60-70 per cent occupancy, which is pretty decent for a project costing just a handful of crores."

But has the film's skin show caused her some disconcert? After all, tantalising posters of Rog evoked protests from Mumbai's moral police. The Social Service Branch of the Mumbai Police even slapped a case of "indecency" against her after a female professor of St. Xavier's College raised a hue and cry about the film's "vulgarity".

Also, there's no denying that Pooja Bhatt's last three films — Jism (bare-dare Bipasha Basu), Paap (wooden-faced model Udita Goswami) and Rog — have all capitalised heavily on the female anatomy.

"It boggles me totally," says the producer with mock exasperation, "as to why people are so obsessed with the non-existent skin show in my films. It's all so tame compared to the vulgarity shown on TV today. Can you show me a single scene in Rog — or Paap or Jism for that matter — where there's vulgarity? It's all so aesthetically packaged! Yes, some of my themes have been bold/adult ones but even in those films, the intimate scenes are handled with a lot of sensitivity."

She switches track to "more positive talk" instead and the need to "expand my horizons". Playing India's cultural ambassador to Pakistan, along with her father, is therefore very much on her agenda. Paap and Rog, she points out, were both received well at the Kara Film Festival and the Bhatts have also co-produced the Indo-Pak film Nazar with Pakistani producer Sohail Khan.

Due for a March release, the film stars Ashmit Patel, Koel Poorie and the Pakistani actor, Mira. "After all, our cultures are so similar," she says. "We share a common historic/political legacy and there's plenty of warmth too on both sides. If this isn't a fertile ground for creative exchange, what is?"

With so much on her creative platter, do additional responsibilities post marriage (to erstwhile MTV host Munish Makhija) impinge on her space? "Oh, no, not at all," she says. "My husband is a chilled-out person and we give each other a lot of space. In fact, Munish helps me a lot in my work. He has a great ear for music, so he helped me source excellent music for many of my films, including Paap and Rog."

With Rog out of her frame, the young producer is busy fleshing out plans to launch three other films — Zehar, The Blue Film and Fanah — over the next few months. "Plus, I'm also reading a couple of scripts which show promise," she discloses. Well, with the Bhatts' penchant for choosing exciting scripts, sizzling lead heroines and promotional pizzazz to match, looks like here's one producer the viewers won't tire of too soon.

Picture by Sandeep Saxena

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