Like all Anurag Basu films, Ludo, which was recently released on Netflix, has a plethora of dazzling characters, each one more absurd and twisted than the last. From a former convict fighting for the love of his daughter, a new bride-to-be bothered by an old sex-tape, and a salesman frustrated with his job who gets stuck as a witness in a murder, to a Mithun-obsessed man who does whacky jobs for the attention of his childhood sweetheart, a non-hindi speaking nurse who is bullied at her job, and tying all these stories together, a con-man named Sattu.
To know more about the film and its characters, we got in touch with Basu. Excerpts follow:
Your first film released in 2002 and over the past eighteen years you have carved a niche for yourself. What has the journey been like and how have you evolved as a director?
I am still evolving. I think beauty lies in imperfection and my process is still ongoing. I would like to call myself a storyteller and I can only tell stories through visuals. I think my only drawback is that people don't know, and as a matter of fact even I don't know, what a Anurag Basu film should look like. Unfortunately, I still haven't found my voice even after eighteen years. I am still looking for that voice.
What inspired Ludo?
I just wanted to make a film that will make people laugh and smile. I also wanted to make a film that juggles a lot of genres in one film. So I tried writing a script like that and it came out really well. Thankfully.
If you had to describe each character in the film in a word, how would you?
Abhishek Bachchan: Bawaal (Commotion)
Rajkummar Rao: Aloo (Name of Fatima’s character in the film)
Fatima Sana Shaikh: Fuljhari (Firecracker)
Adita Roy Kapoor: Saint
Sanya Malhotra: Chupa Rustam (Dark Horse)
Rohit Suresh Saraf: Alice in Wonderland
Pearle Maaney: Alice in Wonderland from Kerela
Pankaj Tripathi: Raita (yogurt dish)
Aren’t ensemble casts challenging to work with?
Not really. It's fun actually because you get to work with so many people, so many different personalities and characters. So I thrive on it. It was actually very exciting to work with so many people.
Ludo has a very different texture to it. Can you talk a little about it?
What I have tried with Ludo is making a multi-genre film. The genres are bending in this film, which is the toughest part to do. That was new for me and we have worked very hard on it. Hope the audience likes it. Very rarely do we see such films where there are numerous genres being played with.
You’re known for not being a planner as you love to improvise and very rarely come on-set with a complete script. What is your process?
So I write the script. You have to write the script. Some people say you can make a film without a script but I don't think it's possible. So after writing the script, I share it with my team. I share it with Pritam for music. And then, because I am the writer, the director and the producer, I don't actually have to give the script to anyone else. If I ever had any producers on board for any of my films, I would've shared the script with them too.
I definitely become more responsible if I have other people on board as producers or directors. Which is why, when I am on a set by myself, I keep improvising till the very last minute. It is my biggest drawback, I admit. I always rehearse the scenes with my assistant directors before shooting, but I keep waiting for something new to come to me till the very last minute. That is when we write the dialogues and share it with the actors. I also feel that when actors come unprepared on set, they give their best. I only come in when the actors want me to come in.
Text Hansika Lohani Mehtani