Murder at 88 Antop Hill Kushan Nandy gets ready for his directorial debut

Ronjita Kulkarni

May 30 always be special for Kushan Nandy. It marked the mahurat of his directorial debut 88 Antop Hill, starring Jackie Shroff, Rahul Dev, Lisa Ray and Atul Kulkarni.

The venue is Madh Island, Mumbai. The place is chaotic, with journalists and crew all around. The mahurat is scheduled at 1600 hours, but it is well past that time.

Rahul Dev and Atul Kulkarni have arrived. Pritish Nandy, reputed journalist and father of the young director, enters, sporting fashionable sunglasses.

Shroff and Ray are absent.

After the traditional and customary breaking of the coconut, the mahurat shot starts. Dev knocks on the door of a cottage. A pause. Kulkarni opens it. A brief conversation follows, and the two walk in, arm in arm.

88 Antop Hill is a murder mystery, produced by Sarvodaya Visuals, founded by Kushan Nandy and Kiran Shroff. It is a television software company producing serials, tele-films, ad films, corporate features and public service films.

"88 Antop Hill is a geographical address. This is where the story begins and ends. It is an integral part of the film. There is an element of fear in the two-hour film," says Nandy. "There are no lead roles in this film. All the actors are characters in the film."

Kushan stresses that he, along with Kiran, had penned the script much before the successful thrillers Raaz and 16 December. "I was inspired by the Amol Palekar-Shabana Azmi thriller Khamosh in 1985. Kiran and I took eight months to come up with the final script for 88 Antop Hill."

Kushan started his career assisting Satish Kaushik [who directs Anil Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty and Keerti Reddy in the soon-to-be released Badhaai Ho Badhaai], and moved on to directing projects for television. Kiran has produced the popular weekly soap, Do Lafzon Ki Kahani, which introduced yesteryear actress Helen on television.

"We have tried to cover every loophole in this thriller. It is not a conventional film," says Kiran Shroff. Rightly so, since there is no romantic angle at all. Shroff is the niece of distributor Shyam Shroff of the well-known Shringar Films.

Most of the shooting will take place in Antop Hill, Mumbai, and Pune.

Says Kulkarni, "Kushan brought the film alive before my eyes. I have never done a murder mystery before, so this film seems very interesting." He plays an honest bank employee in the film.

The film is slated for release this December.