Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who recently bankrolled Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, said the one thing that will always help a storyteller is staying true to oneself.
He said, “My takeaway from Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga is that I am very thrilled and excited with the people of India, critics and everybody. How much love this has gotten. It is amazing. You have to make films that you believe in. Just do it. You have to say what you believe is right and people will love it.”
The filmmaker, who has worked with actors like Anil Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan, said the temptation of money or top stars has never meddled with his vision. “I have never done a film just for money or just for ‘Oh, I want to make a film because it has Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan together,'” Vidhu said.
Recalling the time before Parinda (1989) released, Vidhu Vinod Chopra said he was told by distributors to change the film’s climax and get Jackie Shroff’s character killed rather than those of Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit because the duo was among the most-loved on-screen pairs then.
The director, however, stuck to the story he wanted to tell and went ahead with the climax that he had shot. Parinda became a huge success and is considered as one of Chopra’s best works till date.
“All distributors told me, ‘Don’t kill Anil and Madhuri. We will die. Kill Jackie! Anil will be saved in the end and he will marry Madhuri.’ They wanted to see that. But I thought that was a wrong message. The film is saying, ‘Violence begets violence.’ That is important to me.
“I am telling you honestly. I have never pandered to what the viewers want. I have always said, ‘This is the story I want to tell,’ and I have been very fortunate that the viewers in this country have said, ‘We love this story.’ I have not written a single scene thinking, ‘Oh! People would clap on this one.’ I don’t work like that,” Vidhu Vinod Chopra said.
