Anand Pandit, film producer, and real estate developer recently joined Ronit Raj from ‘The Cine Buzz’. He has upcoming Bollywood and Marathi films ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar’ and ‘Victoria’. He owns Anand Pandit Motion Pictures, a film studio that produces and distributes Bollywood films such as Total Dhamaal, Missing, Sarkar 3, and Great Grand Masti.
Excerpts from the interview:
Ques. The film industry is a challenging and rewarding place, what do you think about it?
Mr.Anand – Yes, the film industry is a challenging place. But what is that there is no fun in life without challenges. If there is no challenge in any film too, then its end result will not be appreciatable and beautiful. So yes the film industry is a very challenging place, its strike rate of success is very less but when there is success in it, people support it.
Ques. Tell me about the success of your films Chehre, The Big Bull and other films.
Mr.Anand – First of all, I am thankful to the audience that they liked both our films very much. People have greatly appreciated whoever our actors are associated with, the rest of the cast and crew members, writers, directors, production teams, etc. I am grateful to all of them. Everyone worked diligently, that was a very difficult time of the pandemic.
Ques. Sir, what is the story of your upcoming Marathi film ‘Victoria’ and ‘Baal Shivaji’?
Mr.Anand – We shot the film ‘Victoria’ in Scotland (England). This film will be ready soon, Sonalee Kulkarni is in the lead and it is being directed by National Award-winning director Ravi Yadav. We will release this film by September and this is my third Marathi film which has been shot in Scotland. No one else dared to make most horror films in Marathi and I dared to do this trick. Let’s see how people will feel, we are very excited about this
‘Bal Shivaji‘ is also a very interesting project and to date, we have got information on Shivaji in very different formats whether it is from film, TV serials, or some plays but mostly Shivaji has always been shown in his big form.
Although history says that when Shivaji was of 12-13 years of age, he showed his strength the most. And that child Shivaji who was 12-13 years old at that time, no film has been made on him, nor has anyone shed light on him. So I hope people will like the film and the commercial aspect is not very big but we want to do some thieves for the next generation.
Ques. What are your views on the biopic ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar’? In which actor Randeep Hooda is in the lead and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar.
Mr.Anand – Today Swatantra Veer Savarkar is in discussion all over the country about him. Unfortunately, he did not get the appreciation they should get, probably due to some political reason and we want to bring that thing out of him and want to show the people that apart from those whom people worship, there are some people who have lived their whole life in front of the British. He has set out in fighting and make his country independent and Swatantra Veer Savarkar is one of them.
And there is no need to say anything about Randeep Hooda’s acting, he is a very good actor, I would call him a method actor, Randeep enters the script, he remembers every dialogue of the script. And also for Mahesh Manjrekar, everyone knows that all the films he has made to date are very good. And I hope people will like this biopic very much.
Share some memorable anecdotes about Amitabh Bachchan when he did shooting for the Gujarati Film ‘Fakt Mahilao Maate’?
Mr.Anand – When I went to meet Bachchan Sir, I was very scared and said that I am making a Gujarati film and wanted to do a small cameo in it and I was thinking that it would be very difficult but as soon as I said I wanted to. If you do a small role, then he immediately said Anand Bhai I don’t know Gujarati. I said sir you don’t need to know Gujarati, I have fixed only that type of role for you, so immediately Bachchan Sir answered yes without any question, so I think it is my good fortune that Bachchan sahib did yes without asking. And after that, I narrated a line to Bachchan sahib, and he liked it very much.
And when Bachchan sir came on the shoot, we were feeling very much now because the character he has in the film is such that he is not here yet and is a resident of the dead and he comes as a ghost, and there is a little car Bachchan sir is sit on top of him. Everyone was thinking that how would this shoot be done, how to make Bachchan sir sit on a car, it was very difficult, we had put stairs for him, so he came straight to the shooting and climbed on it, then after a while when one shot was over then The car was straight, then later it had to be twisted, so we told Bachchan sir that you come downstairs, he said that no, I will sit on the car, you fix the car according to your own / so we were paying a lot but Bachchan sir is Bachchan Sir, and what was our expectation we shot in half the time.
Ques. When a producer takes any director before making a film, what does he see?
Mr.Anand – I mostly see the director’s involvement and whether he has done the same thing before or not, I don’t see it as a technical aspect but what he has for the script is very important for the story and I mostly like it. I do that the director himself brings a story, then his conviction is more about that story, so it is very important.
What do you think about the processing of the film production? What do you prepare keeping in mind the risk that the film will be a superhit or an average?
Mr.Anand – See, everyone seems to have a good child, so the producer is not sitting to make a bad film or to make a flop film, I think every film is good, so we are not afraid of such a film Who likes, no one likes, it is all up to the audience, we try our best to manage the risk.
Ques. What are your thoughts on making a film in Horror Genre? What is the secret to their success?
Mr.Anand – What has happened now is that due to the OTT platform, people’s taste has changed a bit in the last two years, they are liking the easy content, which has thrillers, suspense, and action, and the films that time are feeling good, so I think this is one. Taking the risk, we have just made this Marathi film ‘Victoria’ and we are trying in Hindi as well, as the film ‘Chehre ‘was a thriller, it was very much liked by the people on OTT.
And, Not every horror film is successful, it is very difficult for them to get success because the scope it has is very small, so according to me till date, it has not got so much success, anyway, the film industry is like a roller coaster every 3-4 years The test of the people changes, once Yash Raj’s films used to come, there were beautiful scenes from Europe and there was a love story in it, but today there is no love story for the last 10 years, all comedy films are running, then everyone has their own phase. I think the era that is going on now is OTT, in which horror, suspense, and thriller are all seen.
Ques. What do you usually look for in a script before a movie is made or a selection of starcast?
Mr.Anand – I give this work a little bit to my writer and director, what a writer sometimes does is that one of their dreams is to write this character or this actor. Convection of writer and director is very important and we make 3 preferences before taking starcast in the film and then try to convene them, this is a very simple process and then commerce in that process in which its cost is seen He evaluates it according to to cost.
Superhit films in Bollywood, even after making a film with a big starcast, if you want to make a film on Regional Cinema, then what is the gap there?
Mr.Anand – According to me, a film is a film, take any format, it is a regional film, it is local, it is with a particular language and what has happened now is that no film has been regional, the regional is not shocked much, now every format every Language has become international because of the technology, today we also watch Korean films, we also watch Spanish, earlier we used to watch only Hindi and English, today South films are coming in Hindi, so there is no such specific regional like now but when you If someone is making a film in a particular language and keeping the particular audience in mind, it depends on the audience what that audience likes in the region.
Ques. With OTT gaining popularity, some suggest that it can diminish the ‘star culture’ in Bollywood.
Mr.Anand – Stars and big screen entertainers will always exist but yes, multiple avenues are now available to those who just want to tell stories without the trappings of a mega-budget film that comes with its own constraints. There is a place for every kind of cinema and that is good and healthy for both art and for commerce.
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