When kids of his age were making ambitious plans to become doctors, engineers and pilots, Kallu Mama was devising new ways to stay away from books.
When kids of his age were making ambitious plans to become doctors, engineers and pilots, Kallu Mama was devising new ways to stay away from books. He tried his hand at singing, painting, sports, only to take to acting and film-making eventually. Now as he looks back, he feels that his mission has been successful.
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Although, he admits he's never stopped learning. And his innovative learning strategy helped Saurabh Shukla to churn out a short film with a measely budget of Rs 1000 with his students' scripts recently. He tells CS how he pulled off the feat: 
The short of it
I was conducting a workshop in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) when I realised that they all had a common phobia last minute scripts that were handed over to them by directors. So I asked them to write their own scripts and picked up the first few dialogues from each of them. I realised that the final product acutally made sense, so I modified it a little and created a film in only Rs 1000. Surprise, surprise, it even fetched us an award at the Kala Ghoda Festival!
Saying it with Satya
I think experimentation is a part of learning and I have never been afraid to do that. When I entered Bollywood with Satya in early 90s, the trend of remakes and adaptations was predominant. Satya in fact was a pioneer in the era of originality and parallel cinema. Then we saw successful big budget films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and DDLJ and that trend caught on. But it's changing again now. It's commendable that films like Udaan and Iqbal are still made and doing well. Big banners have accepted the parallel thought of filmmaking and are making films like Chak De and Wake up Sid. But there are still issues I would like to highlight.
My pick
Corruption is one issue that we need to bring to the fore in our films. We might boast about our country's achievements, but corruption is a taint on our pride. It would be great to see a film on the subject. Having said that, I think humour goes a long way in reaching out to people. People say I do black comedy, but frankly, I don't even know what that genre means. According to my life's logic, I see humour in even the saddest or the loneliest part of my life. And I think this understanding reflects in my scripts, my acting and direction.
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