The adventures of 'HULLA'
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à The film script was written in 2001 and took seven years to see the light of day. Several directors and actors including Pankaj Kapur, Konkona Sensharma and Saif Ali Khan (actors) and Rajit Kapur (director) were associated and still the film didnÂt find a producer. Finally, when it did, it was for a very small budget. ThatÂs how the film got made.
à Sushant Singh was a constant ever since Jaideep Varma became the director. He was the non negotiable element for him (along with
à The film has been executed largely by first timers. The entire direction team including the director, the cinematographer, the editor, were first timers. The sound designer was doing his second film and the art director was getting his first individual credit. The leading lady was in her first Hindi film, and a 70 year-old actor was making his film debut. Moreover, both Rajat Kapoor and Sushant Singh were doing their most unusual roles in the context of their careers so far. Most importantly, the director had not even been on fiction film set once in his life, and the Chief Assistant Director had never assisted on a feature film, and his assistants had never been on any film set. No wonder the producer Sunil Doshi was nervous.
à Chandrachood Karnik debuts in the film at the age of 70 plus. He was the most enthusiastic member of the cast and crew, the most punctual and the liveliest. And the most sincere and hardest working. He spent a lot of time with the director rehearsing his part. Mr Karnik is well known for essaying the role of the MTV liftman a few years ago. This is his first feature film.
à Datta Sonwane, despite being in a small role of Sr Inspector Pophale, is one of the finds of the film. He came to the auditions armed with a massive mobile phone which had clips of all the film work he had done. In all the clips he was getting beaten up by either the villain or the hero. Every single clip had him getting thrashed. For Hulla, he initially auditioned for a small role but he was so outstanding that the director found a bigger role for him. His performance never fails to get smiles.
à The director Jaideep Varma is fundamentally a writer. He published a novel called Local in 2005. Being an Indian-published book, it made him so little money that he had no choice but to look for alternative ways of earning a living. The script of Hulla was written by him in 2001 for an NRI friend of his who was studying filmmaking in
à Rajat Kapoor plays a middle class loser for the first time on the big screen. For a man used to playing the smooth corporate city slicker in many film, tv and ad appearances, this was quite a change.
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à Jaideep Varma and Vrajesh Hirjee were colleagues in an ad agency called Everest in the early 1990s. They used to sit next to each other when Vrajesh was just beginning to act in plays. When he had to make a call about shifting full-time to acting, he took Jaideep to Café Excelsior (which still produces the greatest Biryani in the world) and asked him if he should go for it. Jaideep encouraged him to wholeheartedly (and no doubt others did too) and the rest is history. Now, all these years ago, when Jaideep was making his first film, and he approached Vrajesh to be a part of it, he could not say no.
à Hulla is a realistic comedy, a rarity these days. More in the mould of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Sai Paranjpe than any other kind of cinema, but in todayÂs sensibility (it was a wonderful coincidence that Sai Paranjpe was present during the first public screening of Hulla during the Osian film festival). There are no dance floors, guns or stars in the film. No cleavage, no item numbers, hell, not even a love angle. Hopefully, the humour and the wit will compensate.
à For Kartikadevi Rane, this was her first Hindi film (she has done a Marathi feature film before this). She is from a royal family and her uncle is the Chief Minister of
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