If her first film was niche, the second was grand in scale and star power. In this short interview, Zoya Akhtar spoke to Sayan Bhattacharya on the power of stories, music and of course Talaash.
From Luck by Chance to Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to Talaash… all very different genres…. is there a conscious effort to be different from film to film?
No…if the choices were conscious, the work would be contrived. We only develop scripts we want to watch as films… stories we like.
So what would a signature Zoya Akhtar film be … like you can distinguish a Manmohan Desai film or a Woody Allen?
I don’t know really. The audience might be able to say. Right now I am only 2 films old… Maybe some years later, and some more films later I will be able to see patterns in my own work… like if I keep repeating the same theme or I always take that particular shot. But right now I don’t know…I just want all my films to be good stories.
But aren’t their good films that are more about technique than a story?
They are certainly not good for me!
Do you revisit the films you have made?
No I don’t. I haven’t watched the films I have made though I know it is a good exercise!
If you were to revisit Zindagi again…wasn’t it a tad indulgent? The picture postcards of Spain…
Look it was a road film … there is a reason why people drive… you see the country differently. It would have been weird had I not shown you Spain and its landscapes. I wanted the audience to feel like tourists and take the journey along with the characters.
Considering some of the adverse reviews you have received for Zindagi… what do you make of film critics?
Critics have been very kind to me! Luck By Chance didn’t do well at the box office but the reviews were good. In fact one newspaper went to the extent of giving reasons why should it be watched! And we didn’t even get a PR to plant stories! As far as Zindagi is concerned, they can have their opinions but that doesn’t affect me, if I think a critic makes sense, I will be grateful to them… if not I treat it as their opinion.
Tell me about the influence of your mother, Honey Irani on you… she is an acclaimed script writer, having written very mainstream, successful Bollywood scripts…
Not just my mother, even my father Javed Akhtar wrote scripts…
Of course, but Salim-Javed can be the topic of one whole interview…
My mother did a stint at FTII and so we spent our weekends in Pune… she watched a whole lots of films and filmmakers from all over the world… so we got to see some great stuff.… and of course Hollywood movies and Hindi movies . At home, my mother had a library of 1000 films and we would regularly have projections on the wall. So she had a lot of influence on me. And being a Parsi, she loved her musicals. Singing in the rain and so on…
A lot of filmmakers lament the lack of good scripts in Bollywood. What’s your take on that?
I write my own scripts. Like Talaash was cowritten by me and Reema. So I haven’t really faced this problem… I have never looked for writers.
Daughter of Javed Akhtar… perhaps Akhtar and Gulzar are 2 of the last poets in Bollywood… what’s your take on lyrics in Bollywood?
These days Bollywood lyrics is mostly crap and the audience doesn’t seem to notice. They, in fact, love them. So that’s that. Look at the lyricists of the 50s and 60s. They were actual poets. Most of them were members of the Progressive Writers’ Association. They were very political and they ran their homes writing Bollywood lyrics.
But can you completely blame the audience considering that the poetry in Zindagi did so well or songs with good lyrics become popular?
Yes, they do become popular but is the audience assertive enough to reject what is not good? That’s my point.
Have you seen Barfi?
No I haven’t yet. I was in New York.
So which films did you like best this year?
I loved Gangs of Wasseypur, Shanghai, Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana… Then Michael Haneke’s Amour. It was so spare and brilliant.
All his films are spare…
But coming from Bollywood, you know what I mean… it’s really refreshing to see something not slapped with back ground music everywhere…it’s simple and pure. I miss that here.
You have worked as an AD to a lot of filmmakers including Mira Nair, Kaizad Gustad… tell me about those days?
Working on different sets meant you had to adapt to different working styles which was fantastic, you know! It adds to your learning curve. You pick up different things from different directors.
Describe Talaash.
It’s a suspense film with a lot of emotion. It’s very different…
But isn’t different clichéd?
Yes, it’s clichéd. What can I say! Talaash is unusual which is why it took an Aamir Khan to make it happen… as he is unusual! (smiles)
You keep going back to Godfather. Is there any other film you keep going back to?
There are tonnes, ya…Can’t name one! From masters to lots of indie filmmakers in Hollywood to world cinema.
What are you working on now?
I am writing something but it’s still too early to talk about it.
