Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
OMG 2 exclusive Part 2: writer director Amit Rai on the divine influence during the shooting when Akshay Kumar stunned everyone!
In the second part of our exclusive interview series with OMG 2 writer director Amit Rai, we discover unknown facts as Amit talks about the divine influence during the shooting and how Akshay Kumar stunned everyone with some unbelievable.
Excerpts
Did you imagined Akshay Kumar as Lord Shiva the way it has come out?
Any good-looking man with six-foot height with such features can be Lord Shiva, Karan, Arjun. The first time when Akshay Kumar came to us in the get up of Lord Shiva we sensed that something divine had happened.
Any example of the divine example you are talking about
The dance of Akshay Kumar with bhabhut (ashes) on and damroo in hand just before the interval was done by Akshay Kumar himself without any choreography. We just said that you have to dance in motion and show anger and what we all saw was magical. No choreography, no music, nothing. Akshay just did it on the spot and that two in two takes. In one technically the camera got a bit shifted. Unbelievably amazing. We added the sound etc later. We had a two and half minute footage, he just kept dancing like that.
Pankaj Tripathi’s vocabulary/dialect in OMG 2 how did you get it perfect?
Pankaj Tripathi is a great actor and in OMG 2 he has broken his trademark style. A local by the name Vikram set the dialect for Pankaj Tripathi. Pankaj kept Vikram by his side for the whole day. And Pankaj brought his expertise on how much Hindi and how much Malvi he has to speak. Staying with Vikram helped Pankaj a lot in getting used to his way of talking, dialect.
How you zeroed down on Aarush Varma as the son Vivek
I knew Aarush before, he came to me for a film and I found a spark in him. By the grace of God when the final list of auditions came to me the list had two names and we all unanimously decided to go for Aarush.
Coming to OMG 2 which was a risky business of taking a serious issue in a humorous way it’s like walking on a two-edged sharp sword. How the magic happened.
Magic happens. Nobody can plan or create magic in cinema at his or her will. Salim Javed’s simple line in Deewar “Mere Pass Maa Hai’ is now immortal. Nobody would have imagined this would travel so long and continue to do.
The character of Pankaj Tripathi in OMG 2 has never gone to Court, when the Judge played by Pawan Malhotra says “khade ho ke boliye aapati hai boliye”, Pankaj says “ Kade Ho Ke aapai hai” the humour is created and people have loved it. In Munnabhai the form scene creates a conflict between the hospital authority and the person who is brought in stretcher, ‘aadmi important hai ya form’ this creates humour. The clash, the discomfort. In OMG 2 scene when the wife turns up for questioning, Yami asks her about her first night experience with her husband Pankaj and in her innocence she says, “ mujhe laga hamare bete Vivek ke baare mein puchainge, yeh toh aap ke baare mein pooch rahe hai, bata du kya”. That’s how humour gets generated. We write in the context of the film and the characters but sometimes when it reaches the audience it generates the impact we have never imagined.
What is your favourite genre?
Nothing in particular but stories that have emotions, suffering, pain joy that can relate to every human are the stories I want to watch, write and tell.
Your favourite directors
My consider Bimal Roy as my Guru.
Your favourite films
Madhumati, Do Bheega Zameen, Anand
Any Hollywood movie which you are very fond of
I must have watched Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto around one hundred times. Passion Of Christ I loved. I like ther work of Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder, much more both in India and abroad but now these are coming in my mind.
So now what next?
Let’s see, where the response of OMG 2 takes me.
About the music, especially OOnchi OOnchi Wadi
OOonchi OOnchi wadi Akshay Kumar got for us.
Stay tuned for Cineblues final concluding part of exclusive OMG 2 interview with Amit Rai were the writer director will share his experience with CBFC, the OTT options and the recent triumph of Dear Jassi at Toronto Film Festival
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma