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  POLITICS & GOVERNANCE[2001 onwards] POLITICS & GOVERNANCE[1996-2000] MOVIESMUSICSPORTSBUSINESSNATIONAL SECURITYINTERNATIONAL AFFAIRSINFOTECHSOCIETYSTYLELIVETRAVELSCIENCEELECTION'99ELECTIONS '98 | ||
'Raiders of the lost ark...is a typical Manmohan Desai film'
ritvik : mukesh, you say bharat shah has been framed but
why him alone? We have Rizwi, we had Sanjay Dutt earlier and are they not framed
by the police? anilwawa : Between The RBI fiasco and Bharat Shahs arrest, the Hindi Movie Industry seems to be facing a terrible crisis.Can you recall any time when the situation was worse? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : I think so we are in the worst ever situatiion, right now, Bharatbhai is a man of vision, and he put his money on talent even if the person concerned had no collateral securities to give to the financier, his latest film Paagalpan which has no starcasts or a big director to reckon with has been supported by him, this talks volumes of the vision this man has which unfortunately RBI or IDBI for that matter cannot fathom.The terms and conditions laid down by the institutional finance people areso stringent that only a Yash Chopra or a Subhash Ghai who do not need finance can avail the funds. Isnt it a joke? Rajan : Welcome Mr. Bhatt. It has been a long wait of nearly 30 hours before we could chat with you!!!! Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Hi Rajan sorry for the delay as I am fighting too many fronts at one time, we are unfortunately living in a country which in quiet a mess, so I am naturally drawn into this mess created by our system Administrator : Guys, Mr Bhatt is in the Chatroom. Please direct your questions towards him. jamesbond : When will Bharat Shah get out of jail??? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : I feel God has the answer the trouble in this country there are very undemocratic acts like the MOCCA, which as per the whims and fancies of the system can be used as per their discretion, this kind of an act can never be there in a place like America which is a true symbol of a democractic country. Bharat Shah is not a part of organised crime or an extortionist but a big businessman who has helped the country earn foriegn exchange worth crores in the past decades. It is sad that a man of his stature should have been booked under such an horrendous act as MOCCA which is only meant for extortionsts, anti national activists or criminals. jaishriram : Sir, why honest man like u defend crook corrupt like bharatshah? is it because he finance your movie? shame on u? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : How can you call a man of the status of Bharat Shah a crook without even knowing him? I have known him for the past 20 years and I suport him fully because I know him personally. The government in the last 5 years gave him the highest of awards 4 the work done by him and now just because he has become a victim of circumstances and painted black by the media you all have been drawn to accuse such a lovely person as a crook while I know that this man who deals in gems is really a gem. Noorulla : Mr.Mukesh with all the big budget movies around, is it possible for anyone to make such movies without money from underworld? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Movies over the last 50 years have been made the biggest of them for example Sholay, Razia Sultan, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, Shaan etc without the funding of the underworld as you presume. The film industry is always making films on the funds given by a set of regular financiers over the last three to four decades and the so called big budget movies as you have seen above have been made by makers of great repute who will at no cost think of even talking to any person even remotely connected with the underworld leave alone taking finnace. This whole bullshit of underworld financing the film industry is the hype created by the politicians for whatever selfish motivations they might have to tarnish our image. Rajan : Bankers are conservative and film people are rash. Can there be a meeting point? It can only be a flash point at one point or the other? If you agree, how can institutional finance reach film industry? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : I feel that the industry people are much more organised and professional in their job than you imagine. The bankers need not be over cautious when they want to fund any producer who has had a track record of producing five or more movies in the last 1 decade, the producer who has had the capability to make and deliver a film without the institutional finance and paid higher interest and still survived is definitely capable of doing a better job paying les interest and functioning in a much more corpotarised way. Noorulla : commenting on your reply to Ritwik, if Bharat Shah the self made billionaire and honest person, wanted government security and not finding it, he runs to arms of underworld!!!Tell me Mukesh, what prevented him from having his own security people? I am sure that Sanjay, Rizwi and others would say what you tried to say in Bharat Shah's defence. Mr Mukesh Bhatt : We in our country dont have such high profile private security agencies as you imagine it to be and Bharat Shah has not gone into the arms of the underworld as you say he is a victim of the underworld and mind you Bharat Shah on his own steam is so big by himself that he would never need last of of all the underworld in any way to support him. anilbhai : Dear Mr. Bhatt, my mind goes back to that ever so often seen scene where a villain first offers a victim money to participate in an illegal activity and when the victim refuses, threatens his wife or kids.Most ppl I have met, possibly myself included, have the impression that this is what holds true for most off screen situations in mumbai.Comments? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Your family is of prime importance to you and any person who has a family is more vulnerable to sucumbing to presures from the so called members of the underworld, anybody on this planet would be humanly weak when it comes to the lives of his wife and children. kitty : do you beleive that bharat shah has absolutely no links to the underworld? if yes, on wat basis are you saying this? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : I 100% feel that Bharatbhai has no 'so called links' with the underworld he is one of the many businessmen threatened on phone by the underworld and made to do things under pressure. Which I feel is very natural as if you would be in his place you would be doing the same. What can you tell a person when the entire so called system has collapsed? Do you know that as we are talking today a producer by the name of Dilip Gulati was brutally stabed by some criminals who enetered his house forciby at 5:30? The crime rate in the city has sky rocketted, the police say that the things are in control but the actual fact is things are not, in the last one week 25 producers have got threat calls from the underworld. What are the police doing To give the confidence and a feeling of security to the people who are being terrorised? You see this country is in an economic shamble, this supreme court has gone on record to tell the ruling party to do something desperately about people dying of starvati samik : are u making any films with aamir khan Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Not as yet lsinghvi : Hi Mr Bhatt what are the movies you are producing and who are the directors working under u r banner currently Mr Mukesh Bhatt : At the moment I'm producing two movies the first one is called Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar starring Amisha Patel and Jimmy Shergil and directed by Tanuja Chandra. The second film is called Raaz starring Dino Morea and Biapsha Basu, directed by Vikram Bhatt. Both the films boast of one thing and that is having subjects which are very fresh and will cater to the youth between the age group of 18-25 which is the generation which goes to the cinema halls all over the world. Raja : If you could make a film with any star cast you wanted - what do you think is the ultimate star cast today? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Well I have always believed in giving my first priority to the subject matter and then think of the stsarcast as i ALWAYS felt that it is the subject of the film that finally works but as you have asked me about a star who makes a diference I would put my money on Hrithik Roshan, not only because he is a star but because he is a very sincere and a dedicated person who will allow a director to make the film he wants you to make. And ultimately only that works. infrno : I think the film industry has become a FAMILY BUSINESS, where everyone is tryong have a LEGACY SYSTEM. Hrithink is a great guy but what about Tusha Kapoor. The guy has below average looks and the only plus is that he is Jeetu's son. Do you think it makes sense ? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : It will be unfair for me to comment about Tusshar without seeing his film. JIGS : MR MUKESH BHATT HAVE U EVER MER ANY UNDERWORLD ? I DON`T THINK ..... BUT I WANNA LISTEN FROM U ? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Fortunately not:-) And nor do I ever want to meet anybody in my wildest dreams! AKS : Mr.Bhatt ...Hows Bolloywood now a days without Bharatbhai Mr Mukesh Bhatt : In shambles because he is one person who had the talent and vision to back people even if they are new comers and a person who went out of his way to help producers whose movies were stuck due to finance on a purely human front. Money was not everything he saw in all the projects he did, for example I know how he completed Actor Vinod Mehra's Gurudevfilm after he had died, without the family feeling any financial burden, he singularly saw to it that the film was completed and the family got their rightful share. This great quality I am confident cannot exist in institutional finance HAHAHA ;-) kannan : what do u think of the entry of directors from the south..like Manirathnam, shankar etc..to the hindi film industry..? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : There are better off in South and should stay put there. I garauntee disaster for them on a national hook-up. They can cater to the tastebuds of their own territory and not the enture nation. Sanjeet : Sir,why do you always make films with Vikram Bhatt & Tanuja? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : I like to work with people who are on the same mindset as I am, it makes things easier for both the parties. filmfan : Why the Indian film industry still revolving around trees,colors and sentiments Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Because the people in the industry and also mind you majority of the audience are full of regressive minds. It is easy to condemn a Hindi film but what can you do if your audience is full of people who are not very open to change. You get what you want in life. But I feel now slowly and steadily times are changing with regressive stories are falling like dying pens and only people who dare to go into new areas in their scripts will be appreciated and successfil in the Box Office the recent example is of my own film Kasoor which boasts of no starcast but surely on the strength of a fresh subject became successful at the box office. mb2001 : Mr Bhatt,are you optimistic about bollywood's future Mr Mukesh Bhatt : Yeah, It is definitely going to grow 100 folds in the next decade I am absolutely confident of it because I see tremendous new talent budding left right and center ready to trake off and make films of great substance. Sanjeet : Why do you only copy hollywood films-is making croroes and crores is the only thing that is important? Are you going to them those crores with you? Why not make some more memorable films and look for repectablity and profitabilty? Mr Mukesh Bhatt : I'm quiet shocked about the question of respectablity you are asking me, I am indeed one of the most respected filmmakers of the country whether you like it or not and as far as talking about concepts of Hollywood movies I want to tell you one thing is that if you have seen Raiders of the lost ark of Steven Speilberg which was one of the biggest hits of Hollywood and directed by none other than the great Speilberg a typical Manmohan Desai film. So I wouldnt be surprised if Speilberg had seen Manmohan Desais earlier films and made a compliation of all his highlight sequences and put it in his film. And mind you, there is nothing wrong in at as along as the audiences the world over are entertained by the film. We are here to make money and there is nothing wrong in making money and also at the same time entertainining our audiences which is of promise importance to me. Mr Mukesh Bhatt : My message to everybody who is reading this is that please for Gods sake look at Bharatbhai's case as one of a victim because the enture system of our country has collapsed. Till the politicians stop interefering in the work of the police things are not going to be good because yhe por policemans hands wil be tied by the politicians who is always interested in his own personal agenda than the welfare of the people of the country, the police as the judiciary should be alowed to function independantly and look after the welfare of the people of the country without any sort of hindrance from the political scenario than only they will be a sense of confidence, security, seeping in to the minds of the common man. The issue of Commissioner Tyagi as we all are reading in todays newspapers is a glaring example of how one political party is opposing the other to protect the officers who were on duty under their rule. Isnt it sad that even after the Srikrishna Commission report it has taken 9 y
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