FilmiKhabar

Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is excited that the theatrical trailers of Saawariya (released on Friday) have been well received. Here, he talks about the film and other things on his mind.

What have been the reaction to the trailer?

I’m overwhelmed! I’m now growing aware of how much  people expect from Saawariya and just a one minute-30-second trailer has evoked  tremendous reactions. 

What are people to?

They’re responded to the colours, costumes and music.  People are analysing every shot and frame in the trailer. It makes me doubly aware of what people are expecting from Saawariya.

A record 1,450 copies of  the Saawariya trailer were released on Friday!

It was a decision  taken by the team at Sony Pictures. I don’t quite follow their marketing wizardry. But I do know they’re giving Saawariya a unique marketing spin. Since this is their first Bollywood production carrying that legendary Columbia-Tristar logo before my film starts, I was aware of the responsibility on my shoulder.

Lets talk about your leading pair.

I feel Sonam is a vintage combination of Waheeda Rehmanji and Rekhaji. She has that poetic quality. Ranbir brings the best of his grandfather Raj Kapoor and his father Rishi Kapoor in  his  personality.

Audiences of all ages have warmed up to the two of them, although they neither act nor dress like the average metrocentric pair, and we haven’t shown their faces in the trailer.

People are comparing the mood Saawariya to Raj Kapoor’s  Awara, and Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge.

These are among my favourite   filmmakers, people I’ve learnt  the craft from and I think I’ve a long way to go before I  reach their standards. If my work shows glimpses of these  stalwarts then I feel somewhere  I’ve succeeded in doing what I set out to achieve.  Nevertheless the expectations scare me.

Why are you scared of expectations?

It’s a film with newcomers and a new music director, Monty Sharma. A large amount  of  hard work has gone into creating the correct music and performances. It doesn’t matter how many successful films I’ve done in the past. I’ll be judged afresh this time. I’m very humbled by the love they’ve shown to just 1 minute and 30 seconds of the film.

Blue seems to be the predominant colour of Saawariya?

Blue and green are the chosen colours of Saawariya. My brief to my cinematographer Ravi K Chandran was  to give a  surreal romantic interpretation to night-time. Most of the film is shot in the misty night light all created in the studio. Yes it’s got a lot of night-time romance to it.