Posted:
11 years ago
A new story of three friends
NEW DELHI,December 27, 2012
Madhur Tankha
Fresh faces:The lead cast of 'Kai Po Che' with director Abhishek Kapoor. Film-maker Abhishek Kapoor's upcoming Hindi film Kai Po Che is about three youngsters whose lives are intertwined.
For Abhishek, who is giving finishing touches to this film, adapting Chetan Bhagat's book The Three Mistakes of My Life into his project was an exercise fraught with a lot of difficulties. "The book moved in many different directions – love story, politics and religion. So I had to streamline the script. Overall, it was quite a tricky exercise. It is a typical Indian story."
Since Chetan's novel was based in Ahmedabad, the film had to be shot in Gujarat. "Apart from the post-Godhra riots, there was an earthquake in Gujarat between 2000 and 2002. Since the film is about three friends, events including the horrendous sectarian violence have not been depicted. But we have tried to show how these events affect the mindset of the three friends," says Abhishek.
Comparing his upcoming project with his hit film Rock On!!, Abhishek says Kai Po Che is about lower middle class Indians, while the former was about individuals with urban sensibilities. "I like making films with newcomers. In Rock On!! Farhan Akhtar made his debut as an actor and there were other new faces like Prachi Desai. Only Arjun Rampal was a tried and tested actor. In my new project, I had to take newcomers who were young. The idea was to make them look like the characters written in the book. Most of our leading actors are over forty. No point in making 40-plus actors play college-going boys," he says.
Actor Amit Sadh, who is playing one of the three friends, had read The Three Mistakes of My Life even before he was signed for the new project. "Reading is my primary preoccupation and I like going through books penned by Chetan. It would not be an exaggeration to say that a lot of Indian film-makers are hooked on to his novels. However, the film-maker uses his creative licence while making a film," says Amit. Noting that the film cannot be compared with the highly successful Aamir Khan-starrerDil Chahta Hai, Amit says: "The only similarity is that our film is also about three friends. I am playing Omi, who is son of a high priest. He does not recite shlokas. He has no ambition in life."
To talk and behave like a typical Gujarati, actor Raj Kumar Yadav spoke to some of his friends hailing from the Western State. Most of the time, the actor, who belongs to Haryana, was glued to Gujarati channels so that he could get a feel of the culture and how the language was spoken. "In this film, whose title means a triumphant yell in Gujarati, I speak Hindi with a tinge of local accent. My character wants to start his own business with the help of his friends. He takes tuitions and wants to be successful in life," says Raj Kumar, who belongs to Haryana. As the film is not a typical Bollywood film, songs have only been used in the background.Edited by AshuNaik - 11 years ago
