Sunil Dutt “Films should cover their cost”

(We reproduce this interview with Sunil Dutt by Jyothi Venkatesh which appeared in the weekly Current issue dt 25 July 1981)

I have so many things to do which I had left unattended earlier when I did not know what was happening around me. Though I confess I do feel lost because there is a vacuum in my life after Nargis’s death. I now realize that I should now devote time to do all those little things which I had wanted to do-settle deals and negotiations”, said Sunil Dutt.

“I am happy at the response my son Sunjay has got at the box office. I have asked him to sign only a few selected films because in this industry what matters is not quantity but quality. Only if you think you can do enough justice to a role you should accept it”, I told him.

Dutt Saab has already planned two films with Sunjay Dutt as the leading man. He will be directing both the films. One of them will star Sunjay, Padmini Kolhapure, Mithun Chakraborty and South’s Swapna, another model turned heroine.

Dutt saab continued, “Under the aegis of the Ajanta Arts banner, I want to make every year at least one good film as a tribute to Nargis. Thankfully my banner is sound and safe because my last film Nehle Pe Dehla had turned out to be a super duper hit.

“Take it from me, I would not make an art film without keeping an eye on the box office. A film should be commercially viable and in a position to recover its cost of production. Why should a film be made just for the sake of leaving it in the safe custody of the Archives? When I pledge to make at least one film every year as a mark of tribute to Nargis, my responsibility is increasing threefold.

“I plan to make a Trust in the name of Nargis. The proceedings of every film that I make will be credited to the trust which will undertake the job of fulfilling Nargis’s ambition- that is bettering the lives of spastic children. I have told the stars who would be working in my film that I wouldn’t be paying them at all. Most of them have agreed to work for me without charging me any money. And why should any star agree to work free of charge for me? Some of the stars would accept less than half of what they are charging outside for their services.

“On May 3, 1982, my wife’s first death anniversary, I plan to release the first of my planned films. This is about a widower and his daughter who is afflicted with cancer. I had planned the project even before Nargis died. It is a quirk of irony that I will be launching the film after my wife passed away.

“Whenever my wife and I used to pass via Jaslok, she used to tell me with tears in her eyes that a day should come in India when even the poor will be able to get medical aid free of charge. Why should a poor man be deprived of an opportunity to be treated for cancer? A disease doesn’t select its clients.I want to make a hospital for the spastic children. It was my wife’s pet project.”

Sunil Dutt is active before the camera even today. The day I visited him, he had just returned from the Seth Studios where he was shooting for Raj Kumar Kohli’s latest venture Raj Tilak. Apat from Raj Tilak, Sunil Dutt also stars in Raj Kumar Kohli’s Badle Ki Aag.

Sunil Dutt makes it clear that he isn’t interested in switching over to character roles. “As an actor, I have played different kinds of roles. I have never had hang ups about en acting any kind of role. The reason that I have decided not to do any inane character roles as that I want to retain the image which I had when my wife left me.”

Sunil Dutt admits that an entirely new second generation has grown up now during the past one decade or two or so which is interested in seeing those dynamic roles which he had done in the past like the ones in Yaadein, Khandaan, Milan, Reshma Aur Shera and Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke. “I am planning to revive my old films and release them after re- editing them to catch up with the new trends, Today the audience’s taste has changed for the better. I do not want to test their patience by releasing my old films as they were.”

“Today the younger generation is exposed to the world cinema. The media is there unlike in the past when radio was the only medium of communication. Today teenagers see films in their video sets and TV sets. They are aware of what is meant by ‘Close Up’ and Zoom lens and Flashback. They grasp anything rapidly because the I Q of today’s youngsters is more than that of the yesteryear generation and filmmakers have the responsibility of catering to their tastes by taking rapid strides in the field.

Duttsaab continues, after taking a breather. “In the kind of frame my mind was during the past one year or so, I couldn’t take time off to see some of the films we had made in our country. Though I have not seen films like Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Chasme Buddoor, I have heard a lot about these films. In fact, my own children have raved about these films. In order to know these trends in the industry today, I guess I’ll have to see some of the outstanding films made by our directors today.”

Though Sunil Dutt doesn’t admit it, one guesses that he is keen on establishing his banner by making meaningful films which are artistic and at the same time made with an eye on the box office because as he puts it, “Films should be viable commercially if the producer has to survive in his field”.

Now that the youngsters have already invaded the scene and his own son Sunjay has been welcomed by the industry, Sunil Dutt is planning to concentrate on direction. Filmmaking has always been in his blood as has been proved by the fact that ahead of his time he had made masterpieces like Yaadein, Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke and Reshma Aur Shera.

Sunil Dutt is also contemplating upon giving a break to other new comers as well, like he has always done in the past. Who can forget the fact that it was Sunil Dut who had introduced Vinod Khanna, Leena Chandavarkar, Ranjeet, Shakti Kapoor and many others to the screen? Though in Rocky he had introduced a new male face- his own son Sunjay, in his next venture, he is planning to give a break to a new actress.

Sunil will be introducing Swapna, a model turned actress from the south, who is a very popular actress on the Tamil and Malayalam screen today with heroes like Kamal Haasan and Rajinikant. Recently Swapna was in Bombay to see Sunil Dutt and talk about the role, If she is finalised for the film, she may breeze in on the Hindi screen as a Sunil Dutt discovery and pose a serious threat to Rati Agnihotri, another model turned star from South, who has gone places with the release of Ek Duuje Ke Liye.