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After a long hiatus, Kamal Sadanah is back and he brings with him a bag full of surprises -- from starting his own banner Angarth Arts, to producing and acting in the remake of Victoria No 203, one of his father's (Brij Sadanah) most famous works.
Ameeta Gupta recently caught up with Kamal for a tete a tete. Excerpts:
How many times have you seen the original Victoria No 203?
(Laughs) A couple of hundred times. I know each and every character very closely.
What does this film mean to you?
It means a lot. My father produced the original in 1972. It meant a lot to him too. It was one the quickest films he ever made, the shooting of which was done within a few months.
The script, which was excellent, was written in just 15 days -- that's unheard of these days. It was one of the longest running films in the year it was released. So financially and emotionally, it was a very beneficial film.
Click here to watch trailers of Victoria No 203
And so is this remake now. With it, I can establish my own banner. But it's much more than just the financial side. The whole process has been an emotional ride for me. I've been involved in every facet of this film from screenplay to acting.
Why did you decide to remake this specific film?
It was an obvious choice. Victoria was the biggest hit under my dad's banner, which had a great recall value among the people. When we were shooting on the streets, people would come up and ask about the movie and reactions to, 'remake of Victoria' was always favourable. People would then come up to me and reminisce about their favourite scenes.
Is it a scene-to-scene remake or are we to expect new modern twist like the one we saw in Don.
It's not an adaptation but a remake. However, that doesn't mean it's a scene-to-scene rip off of the original. The original Victoria is considered a classic comedy so we didn't want to tamper with that winning recipe.
Here, the story is essentially the same with perhaps a few tweaks here and there. You will find all the beloved characters. We've just altered two roles played by Jimmy Shergil and Javed Jaffrey and made them younger and suave. Preeti's character is completely new but fits in well as one of the connecting factor between all characters.
Will the remake appeal to the fans of the original?
Yes, I believe it will. I was very keen on keeping the emotional connection with the old classic. I've implemented next generation of the original crew -- original music was by Kalyanji-Anandji so I went for Viju Shah.
The old Do Bichare was sung by Kishore Kumar, and now for the new one, we have Amit Kumar (Kishore Kumar's son) singing it. We've stayed with HMV for music distribution. In fact, before I embarked on this venture, I made sure I had the blessings of the original crew and cast.
You have dual role in this film -- producer and actor. As a producer, you had a great hand in selecting the star cast. Were all the actors your first choice for their respective roles?
More or less. For the role of Sara, we wanted to cast a known actress. Amrita Arora was to take on the role but that didn't work out. So without a heroine in tow, we started shooting.
One day, Anupam Kher suggested we'd try out Soniya Mehra (the late actor Vinod Mehra's daughter) for the role. At first, we were reluctant but after the first screen test itself there was no doubt that Soniya was our Sara.
Jimmy 'Jimmy Joseph' (Navin Nischol) was always my first choice for the lead hero. I loved him in Yahaan and I think he is a great performer with a very bright future ahead of him.
Javed Jaffery 'Bobbey Bambatta' (Anwar Hussain) was suggested to me by Vikram Bhatt. I hadn't even thought about him till then. But once he was cast, there's no one else who could have done the role better.
Soniya is making her debut with this film. How would you rate her performance?
She's like a breath of fresh air. She added a great energy and enthusiasm to this film. She's a natural performer.
Tell us about the role you are playing from the first movie.
I play a cold-blooded assassin (Ranjeet), an out and out negative role. It's the first time I'm playing a villain. I had fun doing it. It beats dancing around trees. Also, I know every character of this film inside out so the performance came easily to me.
The old film had excellent music. Does the music of this one live up to that standard of excellence?
Music for this film is by Viju Shah. Besides remixes like Thora to Tehro, we have great original compositions too. The title track is in English, which is a tricky thing. Shaan is doing a number as well as an international artist, Annika from Sweden. It's a great mix of songs.
You debuted along side Kajol in Bekhudi. But after that, we didn't see you in many major roles. What do you think went wrong? What have you been doing?
Yeah, I'd signed up for a bunch of bad films. Things were not going so well. Offers were still coming in but I decided to take a break and get away to get things in order.
I've been around the world scuba diving, white water rafting -- a lot of adventure sports. Also dipped into some spiritual therapy. And of course, partying (laughs).
But I was still on edge and felt grounded only after my marriage to Lisa John in 2001. There's nothing like a beautiful wife and children to change your outlook to life.
I also started my own banner named after my son, Angath, and I just completed an Independent film, Karkash, that I produced and directed myself. It will be released shortly after Victoria No 203. So yes, things seems to be falling into place.