Suparn Verma admits that no filmmaker can guarantee that the audience will love his film ...
Sanjay Gupta is known to look towards foreign films for inspiration. So which one was the muse for Acid Factory?
Sanjay had this amazing story given to him by a writer about seven people trapped inside an acid factory. They’ve lost their memories and in the terrifying present have just realised that there’s a killer amongst them and two others are his intended victims. We wove the screenplay around it. The challenge was in shooting the film in sequence and extracting performances from the group as a whole and not simply from individual actors. Before shooting, I made my cast read out their parts in front of each other and that created a bond between them.
Is Fardeen Khan going to be in all your films?
As long as he does justice to the role and vice versa, why not?
Today Irrfan Khan is the only saleable name.
Individually, they may not be saleable but together the seven actors rock.
How much creative freedom did Gupta give you?
I got everything I asked for. He’s an indulgent producer and that made me a demanding director. He has really spoilt me!
But Apoorva Lakhia has a different story to say after Shootout at Lokhandwala?
That’s between them. With me it was a love story. We’re even planning our next film together.
You hurt your leg during a schedule in South Africa
I slipped in the bathroom and stubbed my toe. Then hobbled around for two weeks.
During your directorial debut, Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena, you had released raunchy MMS videos showing Fardeen and Koena in sexy scenes. Any such promotional gimmicks for Acid Factory?
That publicity gimmick backfired big time. Instead of looking at the film as an intellectual exercise, viewers came expecting to be titillated with sex scenes. I still believe in Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena and stand by it. But no filmmaker can guarantee that the audience will love his film. Acid factory is another good thriller, made without any compromises.
During your directorial debut, Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena, you had released raunchy MMS videos showing Fardeen and Koena in sexy scenes. Any such promotional gimmicks for Acid Factory?
That publicity gimmick backfired big time. Instead of looking at the film as an intellectual exercise, viewers came expecting to be titillated with sex scenes. I still believe in Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena and stand by it. But no filmmaker can guarantee that the audience will love his film. Acid factory is another good thriller, made without any compromises.
The music is thanda.
The music reached the market late for no fault of ours. It would have topped the charts by now had it been released earlier. We are expecting the album to reach the No. 1 position a week after the film’s release.