Panic attack
Ronnie Screwvala of UTV is unhappy with Anurag Kashyap’s Dev.D. He asks Sudhir Mishra to salvage it.
By Parag Maniar (MUMBAI MIRROR; Nov 13, 2008)
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| Ronnie Screwvala |
UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala has pressed the panic button after watching the rushes of his production, Dev.D, directed by Anurag Kashyap. He is not happy with the film and has asked good friend Sudhir Mishra for his suggestions to improve the film.
According to a source close to UTV, “Dev.D is the story of Devdas in modern times, rendered in a dark and abstract form. The execution reminded Ronnie of Anurag’s No Smoking and he feared that the film would meet with a similar fate. That’s when he pressed the panic button.
Ronnie earlier had apprehensions about producing Dev.D, whether the audience would accept a story of a contemporary Devdas. It was Vivek Behl, CEO of UTV, who convinced Ronnie to back Dev.D.”
Though Ronnie agreed to fund the film, he was not completely convinced of the plot, so he allotted a limited budget to the film. Another cause of worry is that the film has exceeded its budget.
The source added, “The film was allotted a budget of Rs 4 crore but has cost UTV a whopping Rs 8 crore. This has upset Ronnie immensely considering that the film has not met with the desired result.”
So what is the problem with the film? The source said, “All characters in Dev.D are grey. The viewer has a difficult time connecting with the contemporary version of Devdas as it fails to stir emotions.
Also, there’s a heavy dose of expletives used by the lead characters in the film, which goes against the film.”
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| Sudhir Mishra |
Sudhir Mishra said, “Anurag Kashyap is like my kid brother. How could I be involved with Dev.D? I think this confusion has sparked off because I am making Aur Ek Devdas with Shiney, Lara and Chitrangada. Dev.D is a fantastic film and Ronnie is very happy with it.”
It is a well-known fact that Dev.D was to be funded by Ambika Hinduja, business tycoon Ashok Hinduja’s daughter earlier. But she opted out of the project after No Smoking bombed at the box-office.
The film is now produced by UTV Spot Boy, a production arm of UTV Motion pictures that makes small and medium budget films. The film stars Abhay Deol in the lead with two new female leads.MUMBAI MIRROR
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Comment by fenilseta on 13 November 2008:
I respect Mr Ronnie a lot. He has the vision and a proper understanding of cinema and therefore he has always invested in good scripts. In the case of DevD, too, he had reservations for producing it but after Mr Vivek’s persuasion, he agreed. And now wat he had feared has come true. And Anurag Kashyap…well he has learned nothing from the disaster of NO SMOKING. DevD luks exactly like No Smoking. Agreed that one shud do sumthin new and make movies differently but it shud not b confusing for the viewers. Anurag doesnt understand this point and goes on making confusing films. Now, because of DevD, there’s a possibility of UTV’s prestige going down. Let’s just hope for the best.
FENIL