If we were to look at it technically, Nagesh Kukunoor feels 20 years of Hyderabad Blues should have been celebrated in 2017, since the film was complete in 1997. Pre-release formalities took time, as the indie film got noticed by director Shyam Benegal at Mumbai’s International Film Festival MAMI, and then picked up by Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films. The nationwide release happened in 1998.
After showcasing the film recently in Mumbai as part of ‘The Masters’ series hosted by Drishyam Films, Nagesh Kukunoor and Elahe Hiptoola decided to bring the film home, to Hyderabad, for a welcome dose of nostalgia through a special screening at Lamakaan on Tuesday. Kukunoor credits Hiptoola for reaching out and bringing the cast and crew together.
This is the first cast and crew reunion, 20 years after the film. “We would occasionally bump into someone or the other but had never met as a team. We had a wrap party soon after the shooting and then we went our ways,” remembers Kukunoor.
91 cuts
Back then, several things needed to be ironed out before the large-hearted indie made with a budget of ₹17 lakh, filmed over 17 days, could see the light of the day.
The CBFC had asked for 91 cuts (audio and visual). “When the stakes are very high, you are concerned but do what’s necessary. Shyam Shroff said he’d take up the film for release after certification and I thought it would be a simple process of submitting and getting the clearance,” he recalls. It was a longer process of finally approaching the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, which only demanded a few audio beeps.
At that time, Kukunoor had also considered approaching the High Court if the clearance didn’t come through. There was the precedence in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1996). But that would have been a longer and expensive process for an independent film.
In hindsight, Kukunoor is glad the film was cleared without cuts. “Had it not been passed, it could have brought things to a grinding halt. The film wouldn’t have been the same,” he says. He had made the film pooling in all his savings from his work as a chemical engineer in the US before being drawn to filmmaking.
Sangeet cinema
When it released, Hyderabad Blues was a refreshing getaway from the regular films that dominated single screens. The English-speaking audience in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi lapped it up, and in Hyderabad, it made its mark in the erstwhile Sangeet cinema. Kukunoor hasn’t seen Hyderabad Blues in its entirety barring the first time after the film was complete. Not even recently when it was screened in Mumbai. When the film ran in Sangeet, he would go at least thrice a week and stand at the back of the hall for a few minutes to observe audience reactions.
Nagesh Kukunoor, Rajshri Nair, Elahe Hiptoola and Vikram Inamdar in ‘Hyderabad Blues’
Kukunoor went on to make Rockford, Bollywood Calling and 3 Deewarein but until Iqbal, the tag ‘Hyderabad Blues director’ stuck with him. “Nostalgia has a powerful sway over everyone, including me,” he laughs, looking back at the early years. For a while, he was concerned that he was still referred to by his first film. “Then it all settled in,” he says.
Iqbal changed things by opening up a bigger market for him in Hindi cinema: “A lot of people who hadn’t seen my previous work thought that was my first film. When Dor released I had people tell me that they liked my first film, Iqbal. It felt like I had two identities.” Nagesh Kukunoor’s next is a 10-episode web series ‘City of Dreams’, a political drama. In the works is also a ‘Hyderabad Blues’ prequel.
Even today, he occasionally comes across people who tell him that Hyderabad Blues was his best: “Damn, after two decades of filmmaking should people think that was my best?” laughs Kukunoor.
He followed up the story of Varun Naidu (essayed by Kukunoor himself), Ashwini (Rajshri Nair) and their friends Seema (Elahe) and Sanjeev (Vikram Inamdar) with Hyderabad Blues 2 in 2004 (Jyoti Dogra stepped in as Ashwini).
In the works now is a Hyderabad Blues prequel that could be either a web series or a feature film. “As and when it gets made, it will be set in the early 80s; there’s a place for that kind of nostalgia,” he says.
Web series
After Dhanak (2016), Kukunoor directed the pilot for the web series Test Case featuring Nimrat Kaur and is now busy with the 10-episode political drama web series City of Dreams. This will be his first full-fledged story set in Mumbai and will intertwine several layers that make up the city and its people.
In the meantime, his production team has also been scanning the negatives of his earlier films for digitisation. Efforts are on to bring Hyderabad Blues and other films to the digital platform.
As the flag bearer of indie cinema of the late 90s and early 2000s, Kukunoor has seen the bandwidth grow. “Any film, as long as it’s not made by a huge production where there’s a lot of interference, which goes against conventional box office wisdom and does something different can be termed independent cinema,” he sums up.
Among the many labels that have been associated with him like a multiplex director, NRI director, etc, he’s been happy with the tag ‘independent filmmaker’.