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We wanted to avoid basing our Indian character on cliches, says Bachaana director Nasir Khan

We wanted to avoid basing our Indian character on cliches, says Bachaana director Nasir Khan

Nasir talks about Bachaana's box office success and says he isn't bothered by critical reviews
Updated 16 Mar, 2016

“Those expecting a lot from the movie are the ones who would be disappointed but not the average cine-goer who hasn’t seen a clean entertaining flick in a long time,” Nasir Khan says when asked about the audience reaction regarding his film.

“It’s a light-hearted on-the-run film where the Indian heroine and the Pakistani hero join hands and keep the audience engaged for 100 minutes. It was meant to entertain the audience who kept guessing as to what would happen next and in my opinion, that’s the success of any entertaining film.”

Bachaana revolves around a Pakistani cab driver Vicky (Mohib Mirza) and an Indian girl Alia (Sanam Saeed) who are on the run from the police as well as gangsters. Be it in a jungle, underwater or in confined places, the duo manages to outrun the chasers and take the audience on a ride through Mauritius — an odd choice for a film setting.

“We chose Mauritius because it’s a beautiful place and not many Pakistani films were shot there in recent times. As we wanted the film to have a fresh feel and also give new visuals to the audience, we decided to go ahead with Mauritius and it worked.”


We tried to model Sanam Saeed on an Indian girl belonging to the middle-class from Aligarh. With Aligarh, we could make her Urdu sound normal and with the help of dialogues, clothing and mannerisms, she looked the part.


Filmmaker Nasir Khan says he doesn’t care what critics have to say about his film as it is doing well in cinemas. The film marks the film debut of both Sanam Saeed and Adeel Hashmi who are shown as a married couple on their honeymoon in the beautiful country.

On one hand, Sanam Saeed looked more Pakistani than Indian (especially in the first half) while Adeel looked menacing as per the character’s demand. There was however some issues with the way he walked, to which the director doesn’t agree. “I wanted to shoot Adeel in a stylised manner and although some people didn’t like the way he moved, others found it refreshing. We were making him play against the type which was a big risk; that’s why the walk made him look cool and stylized."

"As for Sanam, we tried to model her on an Indian girl belonging to the middle-class from Aligarh; she wasn’t shown to be a Mumbai or Delhi girl because they are too Indian. With Aligarh, we could make her Urdu sound normal and with the help of dialogues, clothing and mannerisms, she looked the part.”

Bachaana’s cinematography is its stand-out feature; DoP Asrad Khan deserves special mention for capturing the natural beauty of Mauritius on tape. There is an underwater sequence as well and some of the scenes required stunts, which is something you don’t see in Pakistani films. Mohib’s character jumped from the roof of one building to another; both Sanam and Mohib jumped into the river to avoid capture and then there were the action scenes, which looked stylish compared to the local dhishum fighting.

A BTS shot of Nasir Khan during Bachaana's shoot in Mauritius - Photo courtesy MovieShoovy
A BTS shot of Nasir Khan during Bachaana's shoot in Mauritius - Photo courtesy MovieShoovy

There were moments in the story where common sense could have solved the issue but the director wanted to play with the ‘suspension of disbelief’ factor. “I am happy that people are finding Bachaana to have the Pakistani feel and what we really tried to do was give both the Indian and Pakistani characters a balance. Generally in Indian movies the Pakistani characters are based on false notions and clichés. So we wanted to avoid that and succeeded in it too. When we saw the movie with an Indian audience in Dubai, they were also entertained and didn’t feel it had any political or cultural bias.”

Nasir Khan feels that Bachaana has given him the chance to learn film-making and he plans to use this in his next venture. “Currently I am working on a few ideas which will be shared with media as soon as they are finalised. I will try to use the Bachaana experience in my next project and hopefully the audience would love it too. Yes there were no song and dance sequence in the film but that’s because the lead pair was on the run and didn’t have time for anything except running. I have also tried not to change the plot to ensure that a product was placed in the movie because our audience isn’t stupid; they can smell a product placement from far away,” he added.


Originally published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 13th, 2016

Comments

Aamer Mar 16, 2016 12:02pm
End of the day the movie is a hit and is doing well at the Box office.
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Shaan Mar 16, 2016 12:04pm
"Filmmaker Nasir Khan says he doesn’t care what critics have to say about his film as it is doing well in cinemas" Above comment says it all. As long as the movie is making money, Filmmaker does not care how ridiculous the movie is and how he ridicules the intellect of the viewers and critics. Appalling movie, poor editing and disconnected shots. Pakistanis filmmaker can do much better than that.
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RI Mar 16, 2016 12:07pm
It was 100 minutes of entertainment. I wasn't bored at all despite the fact that the story was not something new & there was room for improvement. The dialogues were funny n both the lead roles did a great job delivering the dialogues. I recommend it. Good job Mr. Khan.
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happyPerson Mar 16, 2016 04:46pm
Congratulations!! on success of Bachana to Bachana team.
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Fandom Beyond the Borders Mar 16, 2016 04:47pm
Sanam does look like a typical beautiful UP girl. Does her parents have lineage from the same place? Perhaps, the answer seems correct to most of her Indian fans.
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GA Mar 16, 2016 08:57pm
I agree that Pakistanis hardly look Pakistanis in Bollywood or Hollywood movies. So good effort by Khan to make her look Indian. It's really insulting when they take Mexicans to play Pakistanis or Arabs in Hollywood movies.
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gp65 Mar 17, 2016 12:50am
"As for Sanam, we tried to model her on an Indian girl belonging to the middle-class from Aligarh; she wasn’t shown to be a Mumbai or Delhi girl because they are too Indian" Huh? And a girl from Aligarh would be less Indian? If anything a girl from Delhi or Mumbai would be more global than a girl from Aligarh. India has 22 official languages of which Urdu is one. Speaking Urdu does not make someone un-Indian. In fact 50 million Indians consider Urdu as their mother tongue.
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Syed Mar 17, 2016 04:36am
Haven'tseen must be a vow!
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Muhammad Madni Mar 17, 2016 08:25am
I don't watch any of Bollywood and Pakistani films, but this film was entertaining.
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Hassan Mar 17, 2016 10:47am
Sanam wasn’t shown to be a Mumbai or Delhi girl because they are ''too Indian'' hahaha Best comment...
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HUMA Mar 17, 2016 01:03pm
I wish I could watch it in Malaysia. Go BIG ! Come on!
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HD Baloch Mar 18, 2016 01:35pm
Waste of time and money. beside very weak direction. Though characters played by the actors were fine but the direction was very poor. Mauritius is beautiful but in the movie it looked there is no other human being living there except the actors in whole country. Even roads and airport looked empty in the movie. There is lack of expertise in the editing of the movie, which could have been done better. Overall to me it looked like a typical TV drama but with lesser advertisement this time.
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AYZA Mar 20, 2016 06:19am
This recent movie, Bachaana has all the elements of a finely tuned production. Mohib Mirza is an outstanding actor who artfully hones his skills to perfection on every level and every production he's involved with. However, one's truly puzzled why the director and producers would select Sanam Saeed as the main female lead in this movie. BTW, seriously wonder how on earth Sanam gained so much star power on Pakistani dramas - especially since her very ordinary looks and total lack of on screen charisma is glaringly obvious : ( Her acting, IMO is far from perfection, and bland to say the least. Bachaana could have been far more successful if the lead actress was Amna Ilyas who's mega talented with far more cinematic charm then Sanam Saeed. And even more important - Amna could effortlessly play an Indian girl vs Sanam due to the former's very ethnic "Indian" looks and her brilliant, very animated acting style.
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Swati Mar 20, 2016 07:46am
@gp65 she probably meant they are too cosmopolitan - Not speaking pure Urdu. They were only comfortable with an Indian character speaking pure Urdu, like someone middle class from Aligarh... Or so they think.
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