No Illusion

ICE PEOPLE: Shantanu Bagchi

, Director, Illusion Films, whose ad-film for Leo Burnett "� 'Girl Child' "� had been nominated in the public service category at Cannes.

Creating special effects for commercial advertisements, fiddling with motion-controlled cameras, working with both enthralling and dumb scripts, and translating his client's ideas into successful commercial advertisements is what has been (ful)filling his day for the last nine-and-a-half years.

However, it didn't start in this manner."As a kid, I was interested in acting. I've acted in a few films in Kolkata "� one of them directed by Satyajit Ray 'Golden Fortress'," says Bagchi. Kolkata, he recalls, "had a taboo against Hindi films (read Bollywood), hence one of my main influences was Hollywood."

He gave up acting to do a five-year (now four-year) course at the Ahmedabad-based National Institue of Design, where he got "tremendous amount of exposure". "We had a lot of guest faculty visiting us "� even from places like Disney," he explains.

Bagchi went on to major in video and film-making. However, he found that "there was very little scope because of bureaucratic tangles". Around 1993-94, he started making small-budget corporate films with his friend (and now partner), Aniruddha Sen. After coming to Mumbai, Bagchi and his partner "foolishly decided to open a production company".

He remembers the time he spent (nearly a year) waiting outside the doors to "get a few breaks". He still recalls making a film for Rasna (instant drink) at a loss of around Rs 75000 since he "was desperate to get a break". the film was a success and Rasna paid him an extra Rs 40,000 to part cover his losses.

But that's all history now. He's come a long way since. "You cannot succeed unless you have a great idea," Bagchi avers. He speaks from experience.