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| Abhilasha Ojha / New Delhi Mar 01, 2009, 00:47 IST |
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Stars apart, bollywood is finally realising the worth of casting directors.
Loveleen Tandan, in one of her recent interviews, mentioned how the experience of working on Slumdog Millionaire helped her to move closer to her own dream of directing films. Tandan, who got a call in early 2007 from one of the production team members of Slumdog Millionaire to help in the casting, found herself moving from “parks, residential areas, football grounds, dancing classes… slums, streets and non-governmental shelters of Mumbai in search of the cast”. It’s here that she found Rubiana Ali and Azharuddin Ismail (the youngest Latika and youngest Salim), “put them on tape for Danny Boyle” and soon became an intrinsic part of the film which — as everyone now knows — has created history.
Back home, Nandini Shrikent can’t stop praising Tandan. “She has done a phenomenal job of casting,” she remarks, gearing up for another day that will see her go through reams of photographs, auditions and finally a selection of characters for some of her forthcoming films, including Karan Johar’s Wake Up Sid, adfilm-director Abhinav Deo’s tentatively titled Crooked and Vijay Lalwant’s Karthik Calling Karthik. She had recently helped in the casting of Sooni Taraporewala’s Little Zizou, a relatively small-budget film which will be releasing soon. A Delhi-bred girl, Shrikent joined the film industry almost 10 years ago and has worked with filmmakers like Govind Nihalani, Karan Johar and Farhan Akhtar. She does casting for a majority of films that come from the Excel Entertainment stable and has done work for Lakshya, Rock On!, Don and Luck by Chance, to name just a few. “One can cast a range of characters, depending on the film, from five characters to 74 or even more,” she says. But does she audition even the main cast? “No,” she laughs at the ingenuous remark. “You don’t get financiers if you don’t have the ‘hero’ of the film,” she smirks sarcastically.
She’s right. Usually, directors know the main cast of their respective films, but the “frontliners and the other characters who layer the film”, as veteran Amita Sehgal (she has casted for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films like Black and Saawariya, to name a few) points out, “are absolutely essential to the story too”. Slumdog Millionaire, she feels, has allowed the world to sit up and take note of the technical talent in India. Shrikent says the Slumdog Millionaire victory is the triumph of the “casting community”.
Look closely at the credits of some of the recent films and you’ll find dedicated cast directors for most of them. Luck by Chance, Dev.D, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye, all of them have boasted dedicated casting directors. Rajat Kapoor, whose film Siddharth—The Prisoner released just yesterday, reasons, “If your film is riding on content and not just publicity gimmicks, the script and the cast of the film makes all the difference.”
Kapoor says that he’s a huge fan of Dev.D, a film that he’s watched a couple of times already. “The cast worked for me,” he explains. Gautam Kishanchandani, the casting director for Dev.D says, “Anurag [Kashyap] wasn’t convinced of Kalki Koechlin who essays the role of Chanda in the film. But he finally gave in,” he says. Kishanchandani believes that with the industry undergoing a tremendous change in terms of story-telling, it just might be possible for people to come from different parts of the country to become casting directors. However, he adds quickly, “Eventually, 70 per cent of the casting directors — and I include myself — want to direct their own films.” He began working with Kashyap on Black Friday, casted for it (“It was tough casting for that film,” he says), and became casting director for films like Aamir and Gulaal. Now he is casting for Milan Luthria’s Once Upon a Time in Mumbai and Raj Kumar Gupta’s second film, while working on his own script. His friend Mukesh Chhabra, a theatreperson who moved from Delhi to Mumbai, in fact, does workshops with slum children and has casted for Chak De! India, Chillar Party — a UTV SpotBoy film — and Imtiaz Ali’s next. “I have six people who assist me,” he smiles. Whenever Chhabra’s travelling, walking or even shopping, “I’m looking out for interesting faces”.
If Kishanchandani’s busy with his script, Honey Trehan, who has been casting for Vishal Bharadwaj’s films ever since the music director forayed into direction, is hoping to find some time to complete his own film’s script soon. “I’ve done the casting for all of Vishal’s films but haven’t had the time to look at my own script,” he says. Casting for a film, he explains, is a difficult process and includes knowing the script well, understanding the characters and knowing what the director wants. “Vishal and I have fought bitterly so many times because of ‘casting’ differences,” he laughs. Trehan, in his latest attempt of casting for Kaminey has roped in Amol Gupte (creative-director of Taare Zameen Par) for a critical role in the film. “I’m very convinced he’ll pull it off,” he promises.
While everyone is tightlipped about the money that casting directors can charge, an insider says that a good casting director can make Rs 2 lakh or more for a good-budget film. “Trust me, no one wants to cast solely for the money, it’s the passion,” he says. Toral Shah, a member of Q Theatre, who also helps in casting for commercials and films alike, agrees: “So often we pass on the numbers and names of people to production houses, they get their break and we don’t even get to know about it. No, we don’t charge anything,” she says.
“As a casting director you’re the mini-director of the film. Your understanding of the film is critical. The fate of the film also hinges on the fact whether you’ve cast well, and that’s the real challenge,” says Kishanchandani. Veterans like Dolly Thakore (noted for her casting in films like Gandhi) and Uma Da Cunha (also casting since the 1980s) have ensured that their films’ characters remain in audiences’ minds for a long time. Now, as the industry wakes up to this specialised field, it’s time to give our casting directors a huge round of applause.
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