After the whooping success of his debut directorial venture ‘Bheja Fry', Sagar Bellary is flooded with calls from producers who want to work with. But Sagar has signed a three film contract with Sahara One Motion Pictures (SOMP) and will busy with them.

We had a talk with this young and thoughtful director about his up coming films and more.

Q: Media has said a lot about ‘Bheja Fry' and its success. We want to hear things from your side?
A: What can I say? It feels great that the first movie has been appreciated by the people. It was a good experience for me and I'm enjoying it now.

Q: With what aim had you made ‘Bheja Fry'?
A: The only aim behind ‘Bheja Fry' was that I make a good film so that I get the next one. I'm lucky that it worked out for me and I have been getting calls almost everyday from producers, even till now I keep getting calls. But now I'm under a contract with Sahara One Motion Pictures.

Q: Why did you choose comedy for you first film?
A: Actually I was supposed to make a children's film for my debut which I'm doing now. But then going by the trend I thought of making comedy.

After ‘Munnabhai...' there had been a lot of comedy films which were being made. Though some of them were badly made but they worked. Thus I wanted to make comedy as it is, I wanted comedy to be comedy and nothing else.

Q: What will your next film ‘Kaccha Limboo' be like?
A: ‘Kaccha Limboo' is about teen adolescence. I wanted to make this film it has been a long time since we have seen a good children's film. Never before in our film have we seen children being portrayed as adults.

This film is about a 13 years old fat boy who is currently going through a state where he is entering his teen age. It is about his becoming from a ‘kaccha limboo' to pakka limboo'. It will have comedy but will be a complete family entertainment.

Q: Are you looking to make a niche for yourself as a director?
A: No it is not so. Actually I want to make good film which complies with the standard of the international market. I want to have good content in my films. If that gets me into a bracket where people recognize me as a niche director I have no problems. I will be all the happy.

Q: What kind of films do you like personally?
A: (after a pause) I like films which are narrators. I'm also fond of films which have a political and social content. The films should say something.

Q: Any director who you like in Bollywood?
A: Director....in bollywood..... I want to take the right names. I think it would be Ram Gopal Varma. I like him because his films have something in them. His films are great and they have a lot of thought put in to them. He makes films with intentions. Nandita Mehra is also one director who had grown and shown her worth with every given opportunity.

Q: The star-cast of ‘Bheja fry' was interesting as well as talented. What about ‘Kaccha Limboo'?
A: This film is about children and the lead character is himself a teen. I do not happen to know any child artist but this is for sure that we are going to bring some new talented children into our films. The teachers and parents will be the known names from the industry.

Q: At the time of ‘Bheja Fry' you did not happen to have the backing of Sahara so what will be the change this time?
A: We have certainly got a bigger budget this time. This time we will be touching a budget of around 4 to 5 crore. So this is one change.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself?
A: I'm a hard core Mumbaiite living in Mulund. I have done my schooling from Mumbai itself and the idea of becoming a director dawned on me when I was in college. At that time one of friend brought me an offer from Zee TV. I worked as an assistant director for a children's show which also did well. Then I joined a film institute in Kolkata to do a course in direction.

Q: So how was the experience at the institute?
A: Whatever I have learnt about film making, I have learnt at Kolkata. I was there at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI). I really learnt a lot from Subroto Mitra, the chief cinematographer for Satyajit Ray, someone who is world renowned. I love the way they work in Kolkata. When we were there we used to crib about that place but now I miss it a lot. Whenever I get chance I visit Kolkata.

Q: From a film institute to a three film deal with Sahara. How has been the journey?
A: It started off with a lot of uncertainties. I did not know what to do but I wanted to make a film. It was very difficult to convince producers because people still did not recognize SRFTI too well.

People thought that it is one of the private film institutes in India and every time I had to inform them that it was being run by the government of India. I'm really very thankful to Rajat Kapoor. He made me the chief assistant to him during the film ‘Raghu Romeo' which he was making after a long time.

He has so much faith I me that when I came up with ‘Bheja Fry' he took me to the producer and guaranteed them on my behalf. It was a great boost to my confidence that a person like him was backing me in my first project.

Q: Being a student from a film institute yourself do you think that there is need for such film institutes.
A: See to be technically sound, one needs to go to a film institute. For example for a cameraman, no one is going to give you those highly priced camera's to sit on them.

At the film institutes you get all these facilities. I was there for four years and all I did there was think about making a film. Well I do not think that to become a director you need to go to a film institute.

You could also be at a jungle or some other place but all you need to do is spend the time thinking about making a film with all your heart. Mili Swarnakar