ANUBHAV TO ‘PARTY’ IN LUCKNOW AGAIN

After Mulk, the filmmaker to shoot his next from April 2!

For director Anubhav

Sinha (right), the partying in Lucknow has just begun. Having shot his last film, Mulk, here in Lucknow, he is back here to shoot his next — Abhi To Party Shuru Hui Hai.

A veteran of 10 films in his 17 year old career, Anubhav will start the shoot from April 2. He, however, refused to confirm the same when HT City spoke to him.

“I can’t talk about the film at all. But yes, I love coming back here, especially, after Mulk which in true sense helped me rediscover myself as a filmmaker,” says the director of Ra.One and Tum Bin.

“Industry sees me as director who can show glossy love stories on foreign locales with songs and action sequences of cars flying in air. But realistic cinema is my zone and I had been craving for it for long,” says Abhinav who has chosen Richa Chadha, Saurabh Shukla, Pankaj Tripathi and Kumud Mishra for his latest.

He will be shooting his second film in UP and has three more films in the pipeline. “I have three more scripts of which two I will direct, one in Lucknow and another in a small town. I have more films that I will only produce,” he says.

After making big budget and larger than life films, Anubhav feels that he wants to make the mid-budget films more.

“I made Mulk in little over Rs 10 cr in record 27 days. This one I plan to make in 24 days. I have realized that this is the zone in which good films can be made with creative liberty that too with good actors. We proved it with Mulk where I actually did only what I wanted to say. I want to remain in that zone,” he says.

The director feels in midbudget segment the interest of producer is also safeguarded and actors too understand the constraints.

“Today, it’s very fancy to talk about Rs 100-200 crore but we need to see how much money it makes actually. These days, actors are very smart and even A-list actors do small budget films if subject is good. It’s important to make good film and recover money that counting collection in crores,” he says giving example of Piku and Pink which did not reach Rs 100crore club but made manifold profits.

But that doesn’t mean he is not doing big budget films.

“It is also a fact that I cannot remain away from action films and slow-moving songs for too long. I will make that too in between and have already started craving to shoot songs with my signature camerawork where my heroine appears in slow motion with her hair flowing and all that,” he says.

On coming back to Lucknow, he says, “I used to be jealous of people when they made films in Uttar Pradesh. I got inspired when Tigmanshu (Dhulia) and Anurag Kashyap made films here. When, Anand (L Rai) shot Raanjhanaa in Varanasi I was like ‘that I have to shoot in UP now’. And, here I am.”

It is his love for UP that perhaps prompted him to name his production house as Beneras Media Works.

PHOTO: HTBS