Bunty... was a film about contrasting lifestyles between generations, of today's generation running out of patience. Aditya Chopra's germ of an idea thrilled Jaideep, and he set about it, randomly remembering media critic Shailaja Bajpai's book on the cable revolution in small town India -- something he'd read 10 years ago -- as well as equally old lessons learnt when he was in advertising.
Working on the 165-litre refrigerator brand for Kelvinator, Jaideep was made aware that his biggest competition, peculiarly enough, was the Bajaj scooter. "These were first time buyers, and the man of the house would have been dreaming of a second-hand scooter, and his wife dreamed of a fridge. There wasn't as much money around for both, and we realised that despite a completely different product category, yeh scooter ka hi chakkar hai." But as income increased, both fridge and scooter sales seemed the plateau. What was that first-time consumer suddenly spending his money on?
"We researched and found out that they're b***dy buying cable and colour TV. Matlab, I'm ready to go hungry or walk 12 miles to office, but I want my cable TV." This, coupled with Bajpai's book and the realisation that village kids in India were watching Baywatch on mute, was enough to convince the writer they were sharing dreams with us. "They are watching the same shows on the same channels, so why should their aspirations be any different from somebody in (southern Mumbai's posh) Cuffe Parade? Just that they haven't gotten the opportunities that we have, but they have the exposure to the same wants. They're as hungry, more hungry in fact."
Photograph: Bunty Aur Babli, a tale about youth from small towns and their determination to succeed.
Also read: 'We don't have our priorities right'
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