Dream. Hope. Desire. Thought. Joy. Pain. Wants. Love. Sorrow. Multitude of emotions that the Indian Cinema has captured since its inception in 1913, with “Raja Harishchandra” by Dadasaheb Phalke. And on the occasion of its centenary anniversary, what better way to commemorate the milestone than to have industry’s fine directors come together to create an anthology of four short films each depicting a shade of Indian cinema. At an event held in Mumbai, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Flying Unicorn unveiled the theatrical trailer of ‘Bombay Talkies’- a 80 minute film that is the amalgamation of four individual 20-minute short films directed by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, and Dibakar Banerjee. Some actors that feature in the film in varied roles are Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rani Mukerji, Saqib Saleem, Randeep Hooda, Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor.
Acknowledging brevity as not being his strength, Karan confessed how he was initially going to refuse the project, but was glad that he eventually agreed to be a part as it is when he has felt most alive as a filmmaker, during the shoot of his part of the movie.
Anurag shared that his short story was actually the first script that he wrote (even before Satya) and now as part of this project he is getting a chance to direct it for celluloid. “The film celebrates the fans. How and because of whom, as well as the extent to which cinema impacts our lives is celebrated in this film”, he further elaborated.
Producer Ashi Dua, of Flying Unicorn Entertainment, speaking on the how she got the filmmakers on board for her dream project said that there was no plan once the concept was ready. She narrated the idea to the filmmakers and everyone’s excited about the outcome as the four directors are ‘equally brilliant and dramatically different’ she added.
