Bluffmaster (2005), the cool con-comedy, completed 20 years on December 16. The film was loved for its fresh treatment, casting, comic moments, shocking suspense, and, of course, the music, which continues to be popular even today. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, director Rohan Sippy spoke about the film and shared some fascinating trivia.
Your first film, Kuch Naa Kaho (2003), was a romantic drama, while Bluffmaster was in a completely different space. What made you switch gears and direct a film of this sort?
A lot of credit goes to writer Shridhar Raghavan. We met in 2003 and had several conversations. We got along very well and discussed many kinds of films that would be fun to make. The idea for Bluffmaster came out of his sensibility and stuff that he was excited by.
The opening disclaimers mention Rajkumar Santoshi under ‘Special Thanks’. What is the reason behind it?
Raj ji was an amazing help. There’s a scene where Boman Irani asks Abhishek Bachchan how many days he actually lived in his life. We started shooting for the film sooner than anticipated and moreover, our complete screenplay draft was in English. While writing the dialogue draft, this was a scene where we kept getting stuck. It’s one of the trickiest to write, especially bringing out the emotion behind it. Unfortunately, at that time, I used to think in English and hence, we kept grappling with it.
I remember we were all set to shoot the scene the next day. We tried multiple drafts, but Shridhar was not happy with the sound of it. He was also working with Mr Santoshi at that time. Mr Santoshi happened to call and asked him, ‘Shridhar, how’s it going?’. Shridhar is always candid and he replied, ‘Not so good. We are getting stuck’! He asked me and Shridhar to come over to his place. It was 8 or 9 pm when we went to meet him. He was having dinner with his associates. We selfishly took him away and literally started discussing the scene (laughs).
That is when I saw up close what an amazing writer he is. He kept trying to work through it with Shridhar. After many hours, we were able to crack the scene. By then, it was quite late at night. I only had time to go home and shower and get to the set at 6:00 am at the Gateway of India.
Boman was apprised of the dialogue on the set. It’s unfair to give an actor such an important scene on the day of the shoot. Nevertheless, adding that extra magic in the scene was worth it. It is one of my favourite scenes.
Even Tigmanshu Dhulia has been thanked…
He had also worked on the earlier draft as a dialogue writer. That was specifically the reason why we thanked him.
That’s not all. Sanjay Dutt and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are also mentioned under ‘Special Thanks’. As per IMDb, the original cast of the film was Sanjay Dutt, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. Is that true?
No. These were different timelines and conversations. I had spoken to both of them, albeit for different reasons. It didn’t work but they were kind enough to give us the time. That’s why we thanked them.
Often, filmmakers say that shooting in Mumbai is not easy. Meanwhile, several scenes of Bluffmaster are shot outdoors in the city. Was it a challenge and did you ever consider setting the film in some other city?
Both Shridhar and I wanted it to be set in Mumbai. A lot of lovely old films had used Mumbai nicely. We were also into that decade of NRI obsession, which began with films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). Switzerland and the USA had become the new ‘it’ places for filmmakers then.
Also, the simple reality was that we didn’t even have the budget to do it (set the film in a foreign place)! Moreover, you can set a love story in different parts of the world, but when you have a con film, involving so many different elements of society, India seems apt. We didn’t even look into any other country, as it would have ended up looking weird. By default, it had to be an Indian city.
Meanwhile, Mumbai was my home from birth and Shridhar’s home since the time he started working. We were also enjoying adding a little bit of Mumbai flavour in the dialogues.
As for shooting here, you don’t realize it’s going to be a big challenge until you do it! Also, we were starting right in the beginning of the monsoon. That added more to the challenge but also added more to the beauty of the final product.
The right kind of cinematographer also helps. Himman Dhamija came on board; he’s from Delhi but has lived in Australia. Someone like him brought in an outsider’s eye in addition to being desi. The idea was not to try to make the city look glossy or westernized. But the richness of the city’s texture is fantastic. You just see it for what it is (smiles).
The post 20 Years of Bluffmaster EXCLUSIVE: “We were stuck till 9 pm…” – Rohan Sippy reveals FASCINATING story behind Rajkumar Santoshi’s mention under ‘Special Thanks’ and his contribution to this Abhishek Bachchan-Boman Irani scene appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.
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