Madhur Bhandarkar: Heroine was Kareena Kapoor's best ever role

Highlights

• Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar feels that his last release Heroine could not garner much attention due to the high expectations of people.
• The 2012 film revolved around the life of a once successful film actress, whose career is on the decline. The film had Kareena Kapoor as the protagonist along with actors Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Rakesh Bapat among others.
• "I don't know what went wrong with the film. It has done commercially better business. The film was made at moderate budget of Rs 21 crore and collected Rs 48 crore so everybody earned the money. I have no regret about making Heroine rather I am happy I made it. I never shun my films I stick to it," Madhur said.
• "There were lots of expectations from people. It became so big that may be it worked against it. But at the end of the day I am happy with whatever response we have got. I think Heroine was Kareena Kapoor's best ever role of her career," he added.
• Bhandarkar has made films like Chandni Bar, Page 3, Fashion, Corporate and Traffic Signal. The director said he has two-three realistic topics that he wants to explore. However, the director is not willing to share any details about the same.
• "I have few ideas in my mind, but right now nothing is concrete. I have registered few titles like Bharat Bandh, Calendar Girl, Money Politics. The titles just intrigued me, so I registered. I had a title Jai Ho, which I gave to Sohail Khan for his next film with Salman Khan. These are typical Madhur Bhandarkar kind of films. I may make a film or not on such titles... not sure yet," he said.
• Madhur reveals a lot of people from the industry were upset with him for making Heroine.
• "People were surprised when I was making Heroine... they were like eyebrows will be raised! But I did not want to digress from real cinema and did not develop cold feet when I was making such films. I made a film that I believed in," he added.
• Madhur has been travelling a lot in the last one year which was a deliberate break that he took from the busy schedule.
• "I have been only making movies since ten years or so. I wanted to take a break and explore things, interact with people from across the world; see lot of films abroad, including feature and documentary films; read a lot of books. But now, time has come to fasten the seat-belt as I am ready to start work," he added.
• Madhur is known for making topical films and now he is making a deliberate shift by making a romantic film. His next film is titled Mar Jawaa, a romantic musical film with T series, which is likely to go on floors early next year.
• "I think as a filmmaker one should make all kinds of films. It is not that one should make only one kind of film. I love to see romantic films I loved watching Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. If I make such films I will make it with my yardstick, according to my parameters," he said.
• "I have been a fan of Basu Chatterjee, Hrishkesh Mukherjee and like their movies Baaton Baaton Mein, Rajniganda, Chit Chor, Choti Si Baat. These were good films with nice milieu, which I feel is missing today. I am trying to bring back this thing, but I don't know if I will succeed in that," the filmmaker said.