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'The road is the fourth character'
For Rajat Mukherjee, Road was a great trip
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Sukanya Verma
The tagline of Ram Gopal Varma's Road reads:
Only accidents don't kill.
Drive carefully (very)
As it happened, Road's lead actor Vivek Oberoi found himself experiencing deja vu while shooting for this film. He was driving from his hotel to the location when his car met with an accident. Vivek escaped unhurt.
The horror of the ordeal is still fresh in Road director Rajat Mukherjee's mind. He recalls, "I was getting irritated that Vivek had not turned up for shooting on time. He is otherwise extremely punctual. A little while later, I saw Vivek and Manoj walk in together. When I asked him about the delay, Vivek never answered me. He just apologised and went to his van. Manoj's car was behind Vivek's so he had witnessed Vivek's car skid. I thank God that he came out unhurt."
With Road, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and Rajat Mukherjee collaborate for the second time after the Fatal Attraction ripoff Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya. After the moderate success of this Urmila Matondkar-Fardeen Khan starrer, that Rajat had an informal meeting with Varma at common friend, Sandeep Chowtha's Chennai home.
Chowtha had earlier composed the music for Varma's Kaun, Jungle, Company and Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya. Mukherjee reveals, "Ramu gave me the title Road. I thought it was amazing. He asked me to work on a script keeping this title in mind. I went to Jaisalmer; in ten days I wrote the screenplay."
When he had finished his first draft, he spoke to a lot of actors for the role that eventually went to Vivek Oberoi. Saif Ali Khan, then on a high with the success of Kundan Shah's Kya Kehna!, Sooraj Barjatya's Hum Saath Saath Hain and Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai, was one of the actors with whom Mukherjee discussed the script.
The director admits he spoke to Khan, but, he says, "Saif had his own reservations about the character. After I thrashed out the film with him, I improvised. I felt the need to cast Road differently. I saw Vivek and Antara (Mali) shooting for Company. I thought of the two as the perfect pair for my film."
Mali underwent a complete makeover in terms of her looks and wardrobe for this racy thriller, giving way to inevitable comparisons between her and Mukherjee's Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya heroine Urmila Matondkar. Mukherjee just says, "I like my heroines to look wonderful. There is no harm in that."
Road also features Manoj Bajpai who is being touted as the film's surprise package for his powerful performance. The role of Babu (his character in Road) was written with Bajpai in mind. When costar Oberoi read the script, he wanted to play Babu. Mukherjee says, "Ramu (Varma) and I convinced him otherwise. At this point I think it is too early for Vivek to play a character like that. It was a challenge for me to make Vivek play a vulnerable character after his tough-as-nails part in Company."
Mukherjee, who hails from the advertising world, is a film buff and addresses Steven Spielberg as God. He says, "They [Hollywood] show constantly moving characters --- sometimes you see road genre films converted into action films. Sometimes like in The Hitcher, you see the plot turn into a psychotic drama. Road films have many sub genres. In my film, the road is the fourth character."
Extensively shot in the rustic, arid locations of Jaisalmer and Bikaner in Rajasthan, Mukherjee and his unit had a harrowing time filming Road. The shooting camp was 40 miles from civilisation. "It was tough for me and the actors. There were a lot of things they had to compromise on. They had to practically live on a moving vehicle for six to seven hours. They had to eat out during breaks and work under the scorching sun," he says matter-of-factly.
Mukherjee was also hounded by a spate of rumours implying that Ram Gopal Varma took charge during the last stages of production. Varma allegedly reshot several portions. Mukherjee retorts, " You cannot deny that Ram Gopal Varma is a distinguished director. It is tough to work with him. I have my point of view and I have always maintained it. It is just that he has his own demands, his own idea about the film. As a director, I have to convince him to see my point of view. I convinced him on certain issues where we had differences. Once he is convinced, everything is smooth. I ultimately made the film the way I wanted to."
Mukherjee adds he would love to work with Ramu again, but "I am not from his camp".