Miss Lovely Director's Next Is A Super-hero Film

From a film about sex sleaze scandal and self-degradation in the horror-porn industry to an out-and-out fantasy about a super-hero, Ashim Ahluwalia the director of the much-lauded Miss Lovely is moving on.

Ashim is all set to do a movie version of the super-hero character Bahadur created by Abid Surati for Indrajal comics.

Unlike super-hero films like Ra.One and Krrish, Bahadur won't emulate Hollywood's super-hero formula but forge its own identity.

Says Ashim. `Yes, I've been approached to make a Hindi superhero film, but very different - an Indrajal comic book character - which is interesting and I can relate to.`

Bathed in the shower of encomiums for Miss Lovely nationally and globally, the avant-garde director says, `When Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas was screened at the Midnight Section of Cannes many years ago, a section of the international press mistook it for a parody. I don't think with the newer Hindi films coming out now, we are in the same situation. A film like Miss Lovely will now release in France, Japan and in the US in April. That's a huge shift - and it will be amazing that they will get to see `our` India and not just the Slumdog Millionaire version.`

Ashim got away with graphic scenes of love-making and even bare breasts in Miss Lovely. Errrr, how come? `I wasn't making a C grade film, but I definitely needed to have the film make you feel like you were within that universe - humid and sleazy. It needed to sometimes have very cheap-looking Ramsay lighting, and yet, other times it needed to be realistic and poetic, a very atmospheric film. I think these combinations make it both `sasta` and `high art` simultaneously. I spent over a year and met everybody in the C grade industry including all the stalwarts like Joginder, who were surprisingly open and welcoming.`

Ashim came away very impressed by the censor board's liberality. `I told them that if the protagonists work in C-grade film industry, how can they talk in family language? I talked to them about other films that have released with hardcore language. So every time I went back, I would argue for them to drop a cut. And I have to say, I was completely blown away by how willing they were to have a conversation about the film. I told them that if they deleted the nude scenes, no one would understand the context of the film. When I saw Paul Anderson's The Master, it had blurs in nude scenes. How come an Indian film gets deletion whereas a Hollywood film gets a blur? They said it's different because it's a Hollywood film. I said it doesn't matter where a naked body comes from, it's the same thing. Then they accepted it and I got blurs instead of deletions. So they were very fair which I hadn't expected.`

Incidentally every prominent actress from Mallika Sherawat to Mugda Godse turned down the film.

Laughs Ashim, `Most of them were outraged or scandalized because they thought it was an actual C grade film. They couldn't understand the idea the the film could be `set` in the C grade industry without actually being a sleaze film itself.One actress even threatened to lodge an FIR against us.`