‘I’m under immense pressure’
After directing Akshay Kumar in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (TEPK), Shree Narayan Singh is all set to don the director’s hat for his second venture — Batti Gul Meter Chalu (BGMC) with Shahid Kapoor. As his first film turned out to be a roaring success, the director admits that he is feeling the pressure.
“I’m under immense pressure. Actually, there shouldn’t be too much pressure for you to give your best but it doesn’t happen that way. So whenever I do feel the pressure, I try and distract myself. I will do my best and then leave it to the audience to judge my work,” he says.
The film that deals with electricity theft will be entirely shot in Uttarakhand. “Uttarakhand is very beautiful and pristine and has been explored very little in Bollywood. The people, the language — all that has always excited me. So I wanted to shoot my film there. Mussoorie, Nainital, Rishikesh, etc. will be the locations my film will be shot in,” he says.
BGMC was being scripted all this while, as Singh wasn’t very happy with the original story. His writers – Siddharth and Garima who worked with him in TEPK reworked the story.
“When I read the script initially, I wasn’t very happy. Then, I got my writers, Garima and Siddharth on board, took Vipul Rawal’s concept and rewrote the entire story. We couldn’t imagine anyone else other than Shahid in this film. He is a very good actor, and it was a dream casting for us. With Akshay sir, I had a great comfort level in my first film and I hope I’ll feel the same in my second film as well,” he says.
Both his films have A-listers and deal with social issues. Singh insists that this is his comfort zone. “I like doing films that has a social message. I want people to get out of the theatre with a thought that they might ponder over. It’s not like I won’t make commercial potboilers but as of now, I want to make these kind of films,” he says.