Nagesh Kukunoor: Far from the madding crowd

He’s known to be a versatile film-maker who’s also a recluse. In fact, Nagesh Kukunoor could be called one of those directors who spearheaded a shift from mainstream commercial films, with Hyderabad Blues way back in 1998. Be it Rockford, Dor, Iqbal, Aashayein or even 3 Deewarein, Nagesh has constantly stood by his stand of experimenting with content and budget.

And now, the director is ready with his first love story, Mod, starring actors Ayesha Takia and Rannvijay Singh. Somehow Nagesh always shied away from making a love story and interestingly, not one person had a whiff of what he was up to till the film was actually made.

“I never wanted to do love stories as I always believed there was nothing really new to say in that space, considering we see so many love stories being made every year,” is his candid confession.

He adds, “But when I saw a Taiwanese film, Keeping Watch, at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, where I was a member of the jury, I was amazed. I wanted to take the same premise and set it in India. So, I went ahead and bought the rights. I still maintain that every story has been told, but it is the way a story is told that matters.”

The sudden change of stance comes as a surprise to a lot of industry insiders as well as his audience.

The film-maker recollects, “Once I was done with the script, I decided to shoot the film away from all attention in Ooty. In fact, I have always stayed away from attention while making my films but that had got disrupted during the last few projects as I was working with big stars like Akshay Kumar and John Abraham — hence, all the media attention. So, I decided to go back to my roots and shoot Mod the way I used to. I hope people like this one,” he ends, simply.