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A new digital chat show brings directors from behind the camera to the front, so you learn more about the 'star makers' of Bollywood
Abhishek Chaubey
"In Hollywood, directors are a celebrated lot. People go to watch certain films only because of the director attached to the project. However, in India, a film may make Rs 100 crore but many aren't even aware of the director's name. So, the purpose is to introduce them to the masses," reasons IFP founder Ritam Bhatnagar. The first season features 10 episodes with guests including Tigmanshu Dhulia, Hansal Mehta, Sujoy Ghosh, Abhishek Chaubey, Shakun Batra, Shashank Khaitan, Dibakar Banerjee and Ram Madhvani. A special edition with filmmakers Amit Golani and Nidhi Bisht of The Viral Fever is also planned. "The idea was to also focus on those who have made it big in the digital space."
Sujoy Ghosh
Hosted by Megha Ritam, a radio jockey and film enthusiast, each episode is 25 minutes long and divided into four segments. A casual chat on the director's filmmaking journey ("we will show childhood photographs of some of the directors") is followed by Build A Scene, a segment where the guest has to create an impromptu scene based on the given location, prop and character, or narrate a conversation that would occur between two characters from his films. For instance, Chaubey was asked to narrate a scene where Tommy Singh (Udta Punjab) met Ishqiya's Babban in an elevator.
Ritam Bhatnagar
"In another segment, we show the directors what people say about them by pulling out tweets or questions from Quora. However, we've stayed away from delving into nuances of their craft or asking them how they frame a scene as it's a filmmakers' show, and not a filmmaking one," says Bhatnagar.
He adds that the team had to break the ice with several filmmakers to get them to open up on set. "Most of them are camera-shy. With Sujoy, we shot for a few minutes but realised he wasn't comfortable. So, we switched off the camera, chatted with him about a few common friends and then, re-shot the episode from scratch."
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