28 Mar - Bollywood-trained director Sharad Sharan looks like a man who is on cloud nine. He walks around greeting everyone with a big smile, flanked by his wife and executive producer of the upcoming "Tipu Kanan...Tipu Kiri". He was kind enough to join Cinema Online for a quick drink and a chat about his film and his quest to put our country on the map of the film-making world. CO : Why did you decide to make this movie? Sharad : I wanted to do it because the script is fantastic. We wanted to do movies that are very entertaining and have a mass appeal, appealing to all ages. As a director, I feel humour is (something) that people have lost in their lives – because of finding money and hard work. In Bollywood, we're trained to make movies to entertain people – make them laugh, make them have dreams, make them feel good – so that when they go there (the cinema) for two hours, they feel very nice, and good. Here I'm creating the same feeling. When you go there (the cinema), you'll have nice songs, see good dresses, good faces, nice music, nice energy, good camerawork, and good production value concept. CO : How far done is the production now? Sharad : We're almost finished – there are five days left for shooting. CO : When would it come out? Sharad : We're planning to release around Independence Day (31st August). CO : I heard that you brought in a cinematographer from India... Sharad : Santosh Thundiyil. CO : Why did you bring him into the production – it's such a different type of movie compared to what he recently did, like "Krrish"? Sharad : For this movie, I needed a Hollywood-feel to the film. We can't afford the Hollywood people! And I knew Santosh very well – I saw "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" - and I felt that he was the best choice for this film. And he was free during this time, so I thought "Well, I should grab him" and requested him to come here. I told him that we wanted Malaysian movies to have a "better, bigger, international feel, so we'd like you to come and help us". So he consented, and he read the script and really liked it. That's how he became a part of it. CO : So the film has a clean, slick look... Sharad : Yes, very 'Adam-Sandler'; you get that kind of feeling when you read the script.
CO : And there's going to be dancing as well? Sharad : It's going to be both the stars, Titi Kamal and Natasha (Hudson). It's engraved in the story, it's not like, suddenly it happens like in Bollywood. It's weaved in the story. CO : So they won't suddenly break into song and dance like typical Bollywood films? Sharad : No. Culturally it's a Malaysian-Indonesian movie. Our main base is here, to make a regional movie, to take Malaysian movies to an international level, and to be commercial; not to win awards. When a new movie industry commercially makes money, then what will happen? The money circulates in the industry. And then the budgets will go up, people will come to the theatres. Seeing that people will come and see the movie, the money will circulate within the executive producers, the distributors, and whoever is involved will get the money; so it's a cycle. Last year the budget was 10 million (US) dollars for a big Bollywood movie, now it's around 30 million dollars. CO : What makes this film "Tipu Kanan...Tipu Kiri" stand out from other films? Sharad : What we're trying to do here is to create a high standard of film-making. Technically it's going to look very finished. What you see in Hollywood, what you see in Bollywood, you'll see in this Malaysian film. When they go, they'll see good-looking faces, good lighting, good dresses. We have fashion designers from India to design the clothes and do the make-up. Renu has designed the whole look of the film to give a total Hollywood feel, because I wanted this movie to be, well, be taken by Sony Pictures and later "Oh, we want to make a remake" - like those Korean movies! (chuckles) We wanted to set that standard, so that they would say "Ok, guys, now you guys make this movie in English". Related Articles: "Tipu Kiri, Tipu Kanan"Cast meets the Press