Director Shaad Ali prefers to tell stories that touch him, says Saimi Sattar
Everybody tells you a story. But does it touch you? Or is calling out to you to make a film? When I read Sandeep Singh’s story and also his hand-written essay, I couldn’t put it down. It compelled me to make a film,” says Shaad Ali about his last venture Soorma which told the story of the Indian hockey captain who made a miraculous comeback to the team against all odds after being shot in a train.
Shaad, who was recently in the capital at the Diorama International Film Festival, was happy to visit the Siri Fort Auditorium where he recalled Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se.. (1998) was screened at one of the IFFI editions. That was his first film as an assistant director. The director made his debut with the Rani Mukherji-Vivek Oberoi starrer Saathiya which 18 years ago was path-breaking in the sense that it looked at love beyond the courtship period and the travails that it needs to go through. He went on to make different kinds of films. Bunty Aur Babli (2005), a desi take on Bonny and Clyde, which he followed up with Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007), Kill Dill (2014), OK Jaanu (2017) before making Soorma. Says the director, “As a film maker, this is always your dream and an ambition to make as many different types of film as you can. It is a quest and a sort of hunger. I am just fortunate that I am able to make films and do it now.”
Shaad believes that it is the best time for any kind of film. “Not just a sports or biopic, because a lot of different kinds are being made,” he says.
And then goes on to qualify it. “I find it very difficult to comment on the times and the eras. So I try to mind my own business and make good films. After all there have been path-breaking movies like Kaagaz Ke Phool, Pyaasa and Umrao Jaan in the past but we only talk abut content coming to the fore now. Every era does have great films we are very small people who are travellers in this journey.”
When one questions him further about the change in audience, Shaad says that the audience does not have expectations. “There is more exposure. The OTT platforms have offered one more medium to watch different kinds of content. Just like good films and bad ones are made, the same will happen with web series,” he says.
So is Shaad willing to experiment and work on web series. “I don’t call it an experiment. It is work. If I get work here, i will do it. I won’t differentiate. I will go wherever I find good work,” he says.
However, Shaad is yet to zero down on what he really wants to work on. “There are many things in the pipeline but it is taking some time to figure out what I want to do. There are several scripts that I have. I will finish working on them and decide what I want to do. At the end of the day, responsibility is to make good films and tell good stories,” he says.
However, a discussion with Shaad is incomplete without a reference to his parents, Muzaffar Ali, film maker-designer and Subhashini Ali, politician and member of the Communist Party of India. But one of the most iconic names that he can call family is that of Captain Lakshmi Sehgal of the Azad Hind Fauj commander. “They are huge influences. I grew up with them as they are family. It was great to grow up in in that kind of an atmosphere,” says Shaad of his formative years which were spent in Kanpur.
