His latest release, Qaidi Band has opened to good reviews and what better way to be rewarded for all the hard work that goes into making a film. It’s double the hard work when your film has a cast that comprises of a bunch of newcomers. In an exclusive interview with HFT, director Habib Faisal , who has earlier directed Do Dooni Chaar and Arjun Kapoor’s debut film, Ishaqzaade, spoke about the choice of the subject and cast for Qaidi Band.
In our conversation that lasted for almost thirty minutes, he gave me a clear picture of what goes on inside Indian jails, the life and plight of the inmates, the horror of the situation inside jails, the judicial system, and the hellish life of the undertrials in jail. I could almost visualise everything as he spoke to me. He also told me about how he got the idea of a band inside a jail; “I read about a band in Tihar jail called Flying Souls, during the making of Ishaqzaade and that’s when I wanted to research more about the life of prisoners,” said Habib. It was this process of research that opened up his eyes about the pathetic life of the prisoners especially the undertrials and that led to him making Qaidi Band. The USP of the film as Habib mentions is that, it has gone into the female wards too. The female wards as he tells us are in a horrifying state inside these jails. The music luckily just fit in well with the script, having music organically, gave the entertainment quotient to the film.
What was surprising was that except for Sachin Pilgaonkar who plays the jailor and Ram Kapoor who plays the lawyer, the entire cast, including the main leads of Qaidi Band were newcomers, yet they managed to pull off a subject which could have otherwise been dark and dreary. While the actors played their parts well, it’s the director who plays a major part in the storytelling and the success of a film. On being questioned about why he didn’t think of casting some well known names and how he managed to make a successful film with complete newcomers, he throws some light;
- Firstly, to get seven big stars together for a film like this would not have been an easy task, managing their dates etc. would have been very difficult unless like Habib says, you are a director like the late Yash Chopra. “I would have loved to have maybe cast actors like Arjun Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra together but that’s not possible because of the way our industry works. Only Yash Chopra, who’s made films like Waqt, Kala Patthar, Silsila etc. could pull off an ensemble cast,” says Habib.
- Since Qaidi Band deals with a band, and there were people of different nationalities and cultures, like the girl from the North East or the boy from Nigeria, the casting required new people. “Had we taken well known actors for the roles, it would have shaken the balance, as it is important that the audience is rooting for all of them equally,” added Habib
- For a film like this, and characters that were there in the film, the physicality of the actors were very important. According to Habib, most of the undertrials who are languishing in jail are the ones who cannot afford good lawyers and are from the weaker economic backgrounds, so the actors had to be new and they had to look the part.
- The fact that the Greek God look kind of yard stick, which was predominant earlier in Indian cinema, no longer exists. Thankfully people like Amitabh Bachchan who was considered to be lanky and later Shah Rukh Khan entered and turned everything upside down. In recent times, actors like Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddique and also Ranveer Singh have proven the same too.” But having said that, there is a lot on instinct involved too,” Habib adds.
For all the newcomers wanting to make it big in the industry, what is the requirement to be a successful actor? I ask. “They must train themselves at which ever stage. They must educate themselves not only in acting but also in film making. Read a lot about the craft, travel if they can. Reading helps them understand what the story is about and it also helps them to a great deal in the choices they make later,” informs Habib.
Habib’s idea of making a film is to have no formula, to be non formulaic is the formula for him.
HFT wishes him more success!
