Viewers are so smart that they don't need spoon-feeding: Director Vishal Pandya

Known for helming projects like Who Done It? (TV series) and Three: Love Lies Betrayal (movie), Vishal Pandya, a known name in the film industry today, is currently working on his upcoming film Hate Stories 2. Tellychakkar.com gets in touch with this very director and corners him for a chat for our ‘Behind the Lens’ segment. Excerpts: How did direction happen to you? (smiles) Just wanting to go with the flow, I initially got an opportunity to get into editing. Before that, I was into garment business but wasn’t very happy about it. So, my first editing job was to be part of the editing team of Vishesh Films’ Kasoor. There itself, I started noticing that the assistant directors on the sets would usually get into creative discussions. This attracted me a lot. So I planned to get into direction. In fact, I also started reading the shots and tried understanding different kinds of shots and continuity. So basically, you started conceiving your own ideas? Yes, I had a bathroom-sized editing room which I would utilize in understanding direction only when I was all alone. This was because that I did not want to make a fool of myself in the presence of others. While I used to do so, one fine day Vikram Bhatt came on the sets at 3 am when I walked up to him asking him if I could talk for five minutes with him to which he agreed. I expressed my desire to get into direction. Impressed, he asked me to see him at his office the next day. I vividly remember that I was there on 9 and 10 March 2001. After that, Vikram took me under his wings and I started as an associate director to him. You’ve done some amazing work in Stri, your last film. Tell us when you execute a scene do you work it as master-lower-mid way, or do you just go with flow? We have never worked master-low-mid way as that was a technique used in TV a couple of years ago. For me, everything depends on the scene. At times, we can even go with the angle. Like complete the first angle shots. I do not change the camera angles that soon, instead, I try and complete all the shots at time. But, I also make it a point to see that my actors are comfortable with it. If they aren’t or especially when it’s an intense scene, one can’t jump on to the other shot. So, you shoot one after the other. What’s your take on jump cut? The audience these days is so smart that they don’t need spoon-feeding. They know exactly what’s happening on-screen so you need not show them a shot where the girl moves out of the house and then walks down the stairs and on road. The audience knows why she is there, hence, we use jump shots. Apart from it, we also do not want the audience to get up and go to the washroom. Jump cuts make the story quick and fast. However, there are directors who give jump cuts because their artistes fail to hold certain emotions. Do you have a say in the casting even after your producer has finalised the casting? (blushes) Nice question, I wanted to answer this for long. I have been working with Vikram Bhatt for 11 years now and trust me he has never interfered in my work. He lets me direct a scene the way I want to. In fact, once we were to shoot for a scene in a bungalow. So, in order to save some money, I thought I’d hire a bungalow in Mumbai. But, he came up to me and said that since the script demanded a better ambience, he sent us to Scotland. That’s the kind of person he is. Even when we were shooting there for 32 days, he came over for a day. And when I asked if he wanted to see the result, he simply said that since he was the writer of the film, he would suggest something as a writer and not a as a director. Would you like to don the producer’s cap in the future? (pauses) I do not want to be a producer yet. These days, people do not want to invest but want to earn money; I want to do the same for a while. I also want my name amongst the big directors in the industry.