Dream Merchant - An Interview with Nagesh Kukunoor

Introductions are passe when it comes to Nagesh Kukunoor. It’s well-known that this NRI returned to India to make his first feature film with a meager budget, even playing the lead role himself. Hyderabad Blues touched a chord and everyone was talking about this hilarious film about an NRI and his family’s attempts to get him married.

Then came a string of films as varied from each other as they could possibly get (see filmography), but all having those little nuances that define a Kukunoor film. And the nuances are aplenty in Nagesh’s latest film, Iqbal.

Sitting cross-legged on a sofa, in the midst of much post-release activity at the producer’s office, Nagesh Kukunoor says, “Iqbal is the classic underdog tale. If you look at the poster, you already know what the ending of the movie is. But it’s the way that the tale is told, that makes the difference.”

Iqbal, is the story of a hearing and speech impaired person (Shreyas Talpade) from Kolipad village, who aspires to bowl for the Indian cricket team. He has the support of his mother and his sister (Shweta Prasad), and later, an alcoholic ex-cricketer (Nasseeruddin Shah), who coaches him. But the mainstay of this film is not Iqbal’s disability, it’s his unwavering focus and determination.

Speaking of the challenges of making this film, Nagesh says, “The longest time I’ve spent on casting was possibly for the character of Rajesh Naidu in Rockford. After that, it’s been Iqbal. I wanted the right Iqbal - not just someone who could act, but also fast-bowl and barefoot at that. To top it all, I wanted someone who could put in the dedication required to learn sign language and make it look effortless on screen. Which is where Shreyas Talpade came into the picture. I looked at about 200 cricketers for the role, and found they just couldn’t act. Then, I looked at actors who could look like fast bowlers, and that was even worse in some respects. Then, Yateen Karyekar, who plays Iqbal’s dad in the movie mentioned that there were a lot of Marathi actors who are also good at cricket. One of them was Shreyas and we zeroed in on him after separate screen tests for acting and bowling. If you look at the sign-language interactions between Shreyas and Shweta, it’s so effortless and natural. This was what I wanted and got.”

One question that often arises when it comes to Nagesh’s films, is the obvious lack of song sequences. It’s a marked departure from the Indian film format. Nagesh has this to say about it, “While I’ve grown up with Bollywood, I’ve developed my sensibilities as an adult, by watching movies from the West. As a result, I’m unfamiliar with how to handle a format with songs, like it’s done in Bollywood.”

“If you see my movies, you’ll notice that I’ve grown as a person. While Hyderabad Blues was an outsider’s perspective (albeit an NRI’s), Iqbal can’t get more Indian. I have scripts where the protagonist is white, and that’s the prerogative I take as a writer. But as a director, I can adapt the story any which way I want to.”

Coming back to Iqbal, it is not very different from his other movies, yet, there seems to be a conscious need to make a completely feel-good film. “There’s a great deal of cynicism that has crept into our lives. I’ve noticed this of myself too. Somewhere along the way, our optimistic side gets buried. Which is where we need a film like Iqbal that can energise us to go chase our dreams.” replies Nagesh.

KUKUNOOR SPEAK:
- If you want something badly enough, you’ll figure out a way to get it. The key thing is to ‘want badly enough’.
- If you dream of making a movie, it’s entirely up to you how to go about it. You could either get trained under a good director for a few years or like me, just go ahead and make that movie by using your savings.
- I believe that there are some basic rules that one follows in genres of film-making. If one breaks the rules, it has to be conscious. Like in Teen Deewarein, it starts out being a drama and then becomes a thriller. That was deliberate.

FILMOGRAPHY
- Hyderabad Blues – 1998
- Rockford – 2000
- Bollywood Calling - 2001
- Teen Deewarein – 2003
- Hyderabad Blues 2 - 2004
- Iqbal – 2005

(edited version published in September 2005 in Java Connect, newsletter of Java Green Chain of cafes)

Unsung Heroes, No Longer

“Every teacher, is in effect, a student. Teaching is one profession, where the learning happens every single day.” says Boman R.Irani, on the merits of the teaching profession. Founder & Managing Trustee of the Rustom Irani Foundation, as well as the Chairman of the Rustomjee International School, Mr. Irani has taken up the field of education as his key focus area - be it spreading knowledge among children or helping teachers hone their skills.

Recently, he announced the launch of the Foundation’s ‘Unsung Heroes…No Longer!’, Awards for Excellence in Education for the year 2004. A national-level event, it attempts to recognize and reward the efforts of secondary school teachers.

“There is a general misconception about teaching being a ‘last-resort’ career for those who find it difficult to find employment. I believe and know of many teachers, who are in the profession for the love of it.” he says.

Ask Mr. Irani how these awards came to be, and he has an interesting tale to narrate. “Some time ago, when a prospective teacher being interviewed for the Rustomjee International School was asked where she sees herself five years from that point on, she replied that she would aspire to receive the Best Teacher Award from the country’s President. This reply triggered off the thought that there is a greater appreciation of the teaching community. This is how we came up with the idea of the Award.”

Last year, the event was open to teachers in Mumbai alone. The contest essentially tested the abilities of a teacher in a non-classroom/student–interaction setting. The pre-finalists not only competed, but also shared knowledge about handling various situations that they came across regularly in classrooms. In addition, the organisers implemented exercises to enhance personality development along with technical coaching in the area of education. This led to greater bonding and communication among the teachers that continued long after the event was over!

In its second year now, ‘Unsung Heroes…No Longer!’, hopes to repeat this fete on a larger base – with teachers from the cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore & Chennai, all waiting to take part in the event. Mr. Irani speculates that this year, there could be about one hundred and fifty participants if early response is anything to go by.

As for the future, Mr. Irani hopes that the Foundation, armed with the logistical experience of handling an exercise such as this at a nation-wide level, should be able to take the contest to smaller towns and cities.

Further refining his ideas on education, he adds, “When you teach an adult, you teach one person, but when you teach a child, you teach three other people.” Himself a product of the education system that insists on learning the lessons and learning them well, Mr. Irani felt the need to create an institution where the stress would be on learning the process of learning through innovative approaches to education, and not just by rote. So, in 1999, the Rustom Irani Foundation established the Rustomjee International school as a premier English medium institution in Mumbai with 268 students. It has grown from strength to strength and today, boasts of 4500 Rustomites, as the students are called.

One recent example of the way things work at the school, is the method in which the highlights of the recent Budget were discussed in class. Teachers took children through the ramifications in each sector, for example, the Science teachers dealt with the implications on industry and technology while the Geography teacher talked about the impact on transportation. This is what Mr. Irani means when he talks about ‘learning the process of learning’.

Spurred by the success of the Rustomjee International School in Mumbai, the Rustom Irani Foundation, whose objective is ‘To Make Education a Priority’, has gone on to implement several interesting programs in the field of education, particularly outreach programs. Sometimes, with a little help of the students of the school.

In order to inculcate human values in every Rustomite, the Sensitive Saturday Program was created. Under this, secondary class students visit institutions such as old-age homes, orphanages and cancer patients’ associations where they interact and spend quality time with the inmates. In addition, the Foundation encourages Rustomites to interact with students from the Maharashtra state-run Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Schools and have also informally helped them with their studies as also organised donation drives for the schools. On an ongoing basis, the Foundation involves underprivileged children in various activities of the Rustomjee International School, for instance, they participate in the school’s annual day function to showcase their talents. Shiksha is an initiative that aims at making children from economically backward classes working as domestic help, to become self-reliant and independent through education. They are taught vocational skills like carpentry, sewing etc., in addition to reading and writing. They are also instilled the importance of hygiene and the use of banks, post office etc.

So what does all this leave young Mr. Irani time for? He leads Keystone Realtors, the first Indian Real Estate Development Company to get ISO 9001:2000. And if he still has time, he’s a keen student himself – of the Martial Arts!

Information on ‘Unsung Heroes…No Longer!’, Awards for Excellence in Education for the year 2004 can be had from the website: http://www.rustomiranifoundation.org.