December 24, 2020 7:15:19 am
Indrajit Lankesh director Shakeela hits screens on December 25. (Photos: PR Handout)
South Indian screen siren Shakeela everything a woman should not have been in a cinema. Independent, challenging and successful. And it’s no surprise though that she finally carried it. “Men in Malayalam’s business were insecure. They couldn’t match the success of her films, ”says director Indrajit Lankesh, who has produced Shakeela ‘s exciting event but doesn’t talk about life on screen with star Richa Chadha.
As Shakeela prepares for a playoffs, Indrajit Lankesh tells what made him tell the story of one of India ‘s most successful but forgotten artists.
Excerpts from Conversation:
What was it about Shakeela’s story that you found cinematic?
Everyone, except those close to Shakeela, knows her just through her movies. After hearing her story and looking closely at her, I decided to make the film.
In fact, Shakeela was a character artist in my film Monalisa. Someone had told me that she was going through a rough phase and was living in a 1BHK house in a dingy place in Chennai. It surprised me, even after appearing in 200-plus films, that she lived in such a state. In the little time we spent together at the time of Monalisa ‘s shooting, I asked her about it. She said, ‘I’ve lost everything and am now looking for character roles’.
We met a couple of times later, but the real story unfolded ten years later when I asked her to make another film. The situation had not changed for her. While I was aware of her rags-to-riches-to-rags story before then, I figured out what really happened – how she was deceived and how she made mistakes. She was honest about it. When you sit down with her, she accepts her mistakes but does not regret them.
However, she regrets being banned from the industry. If you do not receive a censor certificate for 40 of your films, you will be thrown unofficially. She was the first adult movie star, that’s also a woman. She progressed into the Malayalam industry, which is largely dominated by male-centric films. There was no stopping her. That was the first time when men felt insecure. They couldn’t even get theaters for their movies and couldn’t match the success of Shakeela’s films. That intrigued me.
Was Shakeela comfortable with the idea of a biopic or did she have a refuge?
I am very lucky that she speaks her mind. Shakeela made my life a lot easier as a director because she was not hiding anything. She didn’t bother. A lot of new information came out when I started talking to her on camera. And it’s not just a sad saga.
Deciding what to keep in the script and what should not should have been a challenge.
That was always in my mind as I recorded her, and she speaks without a sieve. Like I said, it made my life easier because when you do a biopic and the person is open to sharing stories about her life, it ‘s great. I have kept it as true as possible, sticking to the true story of Shakeela without taking cinematic freedom.
But yes, there was a lot of content. It was a challenge to recite it in two hours, taking into account a number of factors.
Were you aware of not losing objectivity as a storyteller, considering most of your research by talking to the person you were bringing to the screen?
If you try to glorify personality or just look at the original character, it will stay with the audience for 10 minutes. You need to build a statement that is more realistic and gets into the character’s skin. That’s why I didn’t go for someone who was like Shakeela. I wanted a good actor, someone who could be as real as possible. And Richa is a true actor. I have followed her films closely. However, with Shakeela, she has delivered her best performance.
Indrajit Lankesh, Shakeela and Richa Chadha all laugh after a meeting. (Photo: PR PRout)
Shakeela is not like Richa but a player. That’s what I’ve tried to do, get a player who makes the character believe the audience. My father would tell me not to believe in autobiography. However, what helped my question to present a true story was that Shakeela was not hiding anything about herself. We have not tried to glorify him. My film is against you, telling what it’s like to live in a male-hearted society. It’s the story of a woman who wanted to achieve something great and did it. She swam against the tide before being given the footnotes.
Pankaj Tripathi, as a creepy yesteryear star, is an interesting throwing option as no one has seen him play for the gallery. What was it about Pankaj that you felt suited the character?
Shakeela is one of the greatest movies for Pankaj when it comes to screen space and the character in itself. He had never played superstar or actor before. Pankaj is one of our best performers today. He is the biggest star on the digital platform. In fact, it is bigger than any of the Bollywood stars. It is an asset to our film.
I became a fan after seeing him in Newton. I felt like the movie was starring. Coming back to Shakeela, Pankaj told me that he always wanted to play this type of character but never got the chance. The character he narrates represents the industry, as it is today.
How do you deal with comparisons between Shakeela and The Dirty Picture? Also with the latter succeeding in box office, were you put on extra weight while making Shakeela?
First of all, I am a huge fan of Vidya Balan and I really admired her performance in The Dirty Picture. Of course, the film was a huge success and added to the pressure on us as we are also telling the story of an adult movie star. When you do that, you have to burn a lot of meta views. Things like that end there. I have followed the Silk Smitha career. She was very popular for her dancing. In fact, when many heroes hit down south on a rough patch, they would put a song by Silk to make their movies work.
In fact, the makers (of The Dirty Picture) took a lot of cinematic freedom, and it was up to them how they wanted to present the story. And the film became a huge success. However, Shakeela is different. It’s a real movie. I’ve been honest in the sense that I haven’t moved on from Shakeela’s life story.
Shakeela releases at a time when people are not comfortable watching movies in theaters. Weren’t they sad at all?
I thought a lot about it and even held conversations with my producer and marketing team. We even got a lot of OTT offers. But my producers and I believed this was a movie for theaters. Shakeela was a popular face not only in big cities but also in smaller ones. The big people respected her. Someone had to take the first step to get audiences back in theaters, and what better excuse than Shakeela. We are up for the challenge.
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