'Irrfan Khan makes funny scene look easy but it isn't', says 'Blackmail' director Abinay Deo

Bollywood is one of the world's largest film industries in terms of films produced, but director Abhinay Deo believes Hindi cinema must focus more on churning out quality stories.

The filmmaker said content is king and artistes should steer clear of the number game. "As creative people, we need to put enough thought behind every script. We, as a film industry, churn out maximum number of films but just the number is not important. "We must given attention to content, writers must be able to come up with good stories that are different. Our industry should not be known just for quantity but for quality as well," Abhinay told PTI.

The "Force 2" director said there was no dearth of ideas but they stopped a little short of excellence. "We should all aim for excellence and aim to write an excellent script," he said. Citing the example of Akshat Verma, Abhinay said the writer invested nine years to find the right pulse for "Delhi Belly", which opened a new space for black humour and bold content in Bollywood.

Abhinay revealed that he and his team worked for about a year-and-half on his 2016 hit film "Force 2". It took him three years to put together his upcoming release "Blackmail", he added. After the stupendous success of "Delhi Belly", produced by Aamir Khan, Abhinay was flooded with 20 comedy scripts. "They (makers) felt I could handle comedy very well. (But) If I make a comedy film, it has to be better than 'Delhi Belly'. But that did not happen in terms of the scripts that I got," he said.

"Another genre that I like a lot is action so I did 'Force 2'. In between, I did '24', which pushed the envelope for television," he added. Talking about comedy as a genre, Abhinay said though he enjoyed black comedy that does not mean he was against slapstick humour. "But maybe I am not the right person to make it. Charlie Chaplin is the best example of slapstick comedy and it is amazing to see what he has managed to do. "There are some really good comedians in our country and some of the biggest blockbusters are comedy films. Writers need to push themselves for a good story," he said.

"Blackmail", features Irrfan Khan in the lead and contrary to popular belief of him being a serious actor, Abhinay said the National Award winner was equally good when it came to humour. "His sense of timing, the way he manages to deliver funny things without doing many things is commendable. We feel he is not doing anything but he has thought it out very well and makes it look easy but it isn't that easy," he said. The director hopes that

Irrfan's absence from the film promotions due to health concerns does not affect the movie's business. The actor is undergoing treatment for neuroendocrine tumour abroad. "It does affect the promotions. But everybody knows the reason why Irrfan is not here and that his treatment is important at the moment. We hope the film does well as that's what even he wants," he said.

The film also features Kirti Kulhari, Divya Dutta, Arunoday Singh and Omi Vaidya. "There are times when the scenes are not funny, they are serious but the audience is laughing its guts out because of the situation. There is not a single character in the film who is trying to be funny but it is still a comedy," he added.

The film has a special song "Bewafa Beauty" that will see Bollywood diva Urmila Matondkar's return to films. Abhinay said the song is unlike any other item number as it adds to the premise of the film's story about a man whose wife is cheating on him."An item song is something that has got nothing to do with the film. It just comes and goes and it doesn't affect the film.

"This ('Bewafa Beauty') is not like that. This song is a part of the story. The lyrics of the song tell the story, it takes the story ahead. It is juxtaposed with a very important scene," the director said.
Co-produced by Bhushan Kumar's T-Series Films, the movie is slated to release on April 6.