MUMBAI: Director Abhishek Chaubey, who is soon to release Dedh Ishqiya — sequel to 2010’s Ishqiya, feels it is difficult to create love scenes with actors unless they trust their director completely.
“They have to trust the director’s vision. As a director, I had to make sure I didn’t let the actors down,” said Chaubey, who worked with actors Arshad Warsi, Huma Qureshi, Madhuri Dixit and Naseeruddin Shah in Dedh Ishqiya.
He also shared that “once Madhuri accepted the scenes, she gave all of herself to them”. Chaubey also mentioned that there are more intimate scenes between Huma and Arshad than Madhuri and Naseeruddin in the film.
Appreciating Madhuri as an actor, he said: “It was an honour to work with somebody of her calibre. Getting Madhuri ji was the best thing that could’ve happened to the film. I feel she has all the emotions within her.”
Chaubey believes only the film-maker can pull out the emotions he wants from a character. “Madhuri gave a pitch-perfect performance,” he said, adding that the script was actually written to accommodate Madhuri’s personality and skills.
“What’s the point of having her in a film if there’s no dancing?” said Chaubey. “We wove her dancing skills into the script. When we decided Madhuri would play Begum Para, we wrote the character according to her personality and incorporated dancing,” he explained.
Madhuri has shot a semi-classical dance number Jaagi Saari Raina, choreographed by Kathak legend Birju Maharaj.
“I wanted Birju Maharaj ji and Madhuri ji to recreate the magic that choreographer Hiralal and Waheeda ji [Waheeda Rahman] created in Guide,” said Chaubey. “We shot in a beautiful palace in Lucknow. I became this wide-eyed boy watching the two stalwarts at work.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2013.
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