Shoojit Sircar’s previous two films Gulabo Sitabo (2020) and Sardar Udham (2021) were released directly on Prime Video during the coronavirus pandemic. Sircar’s latest movie I Want to Talk will be out in cinemas on November 22. Led by Abhishek Bachchan, the Hindi movie is “a simple, slice of life film”, Sircar told Scroll.
How did I Want to Talk come about?
I was sitting at home during Covid and planning what to do when this idea came to me. Ritesh Shah and I started developing it.
It’s a simple, slice of life film about families, fathers and daughters, everyday life. I Want to Talk is the story of an NRI, a father-daughter relationship that covers the passage of time. Like Piku or October, this film looks at the things we deal with every day. We often feel the task is going to be insurmountable, or life is going to be tough, but then we look back and realise that it was just a small thing.
The film deals with life lessons with a smile. Anything to do with life is emotionally driven. When you’re dealing with family and relationships, humour, joy and tears go together.
This is the first time you’re working with Abhishek Bachchan. When you cast Varun Dhawan in October, you cast him against type too. What made Abhishek the right fit for I Want to Talk?
While working with Mr Bachchan, I had started interacting with Abhishek. We wanted to collaborate for a long time, but didn’t find the right fit.
I go for pure casting. The actor must absolutely melt into the character. For example, when Varun does not fit into my kind of films and genre, but somewhere I found my Dan in him for October. Similarly, I found Abhishek to be exactly the character I had visualised.
There was a keenness to work with me. We met and tried to understand each other. During that process, we learnt a lot of things and that’s how we hit upon the character.
You directed Amitabh Bachchan in Piku, Gulabo Sitabo and your production Pink. What is it about your generation’s infatuation with him, and how does this impact his son?
I can only tell you about my association and understanding. First is his stardom. Mr Bachchan is one of the biggest superstars, and associating with him will surely get my film eyeballs. And then, of course, we have seen him perform.
His characters in my films are not heroic. He plays a simple father, a husband, a lawyer or a homeowner. His stature can be challenging or omnipresent, but to compare or connect the two is wrong. I have children too and I wouldn’t like them to have any pressure. For example, after Irrfan passed, everybody started hoping for so much from his son Babil, but you have to give Babil time.
Your filmography includes political films like Yahaan, Madras Cafe and Sardar Udham on one hand and intimate stories like Piku and October on the other. If you look at these two buckets, do you feel more drawn towards either one?
One set is politics and political thrillers, and the other is a completely different bucket of everyday, mundane life stories. The latter attracts me more because I have slowly realised that these observations, which I used to think are quite boring and unlaughable, which I never thought could be interesting, were made into movies.
A few moments of Vicky Donor also worked very well. Shoebite, a film I made in 2019 with Mr Bachchan that was never released, also dealt with simple everyday life with a different lens.
Whatever the situation in your life, it can be looked at with humour too. I’ve tried to bring those nuances into the films. These beautiful relationships and moments, which cook slowly, where there is joy, appeal to me more.
In the age of streaming, why has Shoebite, which was produced by UTV, still not found a release platform?
Because it’s complicated and the complication was between the studios. Although now I guess everyone has become one corporation, because Disney, which bought UTV, and Jio are merging. There is a chance that it might be on OTT [streaming]. I hope it gets sorted out.
What is the status of your announced projects like a Kishore Kumar biopic and a football-based film?
I had been working on a script on the life of Kishore Kumar. I did almost three to four years of research with the family, but there were a couple of other scripts being worked on at the same time, including by Anurag Basu. I had developed a draft, but when I learnt about Anurag, I didn’t think there was any point in two people doing the same thing. So that went on ice. Once you lose the momentum, it’s a big challenge to go back to it.
Then there was a football film about Mohun Bagan and the British called 1911. Something similar happened with that film too. The script didn’t reach a satisfactory level and now I’ve lost the momentum. But there are other films I’m working on now.
