Issue-based films can be entertaining: 'Phas Gaye Re Obama' director Subhash Kapoor

He’s only two films old but when you speak to Subhash Kapoor, there is none of the mad rush or confusion associated with tinsel-town novices. Everything about this director of Phas Gaye Re Obama (PGRO) — one of 2010’s acclaimed films — seems driven and focused without going out of the ‘relax’ mode.

PGRO revolves around global recession, and how it had an impact on the lives of people, from an America-based businessman to underworld gangsters in India.

The film traces the journey of an NRI, Om Shastri, who loses all his wealth overnight to the global recession. Shastri returns to India to sell his ancestral property so that he can pay off his debts, but gets abducted by a ‘recession-hit’ gang, which thinks it has found a goldmine in Shastri.

How did a rank outsider like Kapoor gain entry into Bollywood’s ‘By Invitation Only’ circle? “Here, everything is set on paradigms of who you know," he admits. "It can be incredibly difficult. Even before they get to know you, people want to know who you know and who knows you.”

Kapoor says his struggling days lasted a while. “A big shot once told me to go back and find something else to do,” he recounts, and says he knows of filmmakers who have struggled for years and haven’t got anywhere yet.

“I have met people who sleep on pavements and live miserable lives in pursuit of their dreams. When I look at myself vis-a-vis them, I think I’ve been lucky.”

After having made the sports drama, Say Salaam India: Let’s Bring the Cup Home, which went unnoticed at the box office, Kapoor may have found it tough to find a backer for his political satire. In fact it was luck that helped Kapoor to find a producer willing to risk his money on him.

“I think it only happened because he, too, was a first-time producer and the industry hadn’t corrupted him yet.”

Kapoor admits that both he and the film’s producer were pleasantly surprised by the response PGRO received from audiences.

According to him, the bane of the system is its scant regard for the script. “Hollywood, too, is a slave to stars, but they at least want a decent script. Here, a good script is not even number five or six on a producer’s priority list.”

He hopes that 2010 will turn things around. “Unlike the odd Bheja Fry or Khosla Ka Ghosla, this year you’ve had seven-eight very special films. All of them are by new, independent and small filmmakers, which managed to perform decently at the box office,” he points out.

“There is no way people can brush it off as a fluke year," he continues. "In the star-driven mayhem, the success of small films is remarkable. If you compare the performance of  the small films to the colossal losses made by Sanjay Leela Bhasali, Ashutosh Gowariker, Ram Gopal Verma and Vipul Shah, then 2010 can be called the big wake-up call to Bollywood.”

Asked how he views the competition from other new filmmakers, he says he found films like Love Sex Aur Dhoka, Tere Bin Laden, Peepli [Live], Udaan and Do Dooni Chaar impressive but does not think he would want to make any of them. “They are fabulous to watch but I can’t think of how I could ever infuse so much into seemingly meaningless scenes in Udaan, for instance,” he explains.

For a man who seeks eclectic inspiration from auteurs as varied as Bimal Roy, Satyajit Ray, Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra, he says he wants to make issue-based movies.

“This does not mean heavy, unwatchable stuff," he is quick to explain. "In fact, if anything, this year has proven how issue-based films can be made in an entertaining manner.”