Sudhir Mishra making film on street kid

Director Sudhir Mishra has put his version of “Devdas” on hold and has now started shooting a quick film on a street child titled “Tera Kya Hoga Johnny”, which he hopes to complete in 40 days.

“I was supposed to do it after ‘Devdas’. I started shooting it immediately because ‘Devdas’ got delayed,” said Mishra.

In this movie, the director returns to his favourite creative haunt - the streets of Mumbai.

“I’ve done films on Mumbai earlier. It’s in the mood of my ‘Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin’ and ‘Dharavi’. It’s set at a time when Mumbai wants to be Shanghai. Who gives a damn about a street kid named Johnny who sells coffee on the streets of the cruel city?

“It’s about Johnny and three people who wonder what’s going to happen to Johnny while Johnny wonders what’s going to happen to those people,” Mishra explained.

The 13-year-old protagonist is played by Sikandar, who was one of the main characters in a film called “Shadows Of Time”.

“It was a strange film by a German director Florian Gallenberger in Bengali.

My casting director saw Sikandar and he was on,” he said.

The film’s songs will be different. “We’ll have songs that the protagonist Johnny likes played and sung impromptu.”

This is the first time that Mishra is directing a film with a child in the lead. “You can’t over-direct a child. Let him be. His emotional responses come from within. Nowadays the calibre of child actors have truly improved.”

“Tera Kya Hoga Johnny” also stars Neil Mukesh, Karan Nath, Kay Kay Menon, and Mishra’s favourite leading lady Soha Ali Khan.

“Soha is wonderful. She comes so well prepared on the sets. And once my ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ releases, Soha would really have arrived,” the director said.

The film’s release however has been postponed. “It’s now Dec 14. We can’t compete with ‘Saawariya’ and ‘Om Shanti Om’ as far as the number of prints and theatres are concerned. We want to give ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ a big release. It’s not an intimate film like my earlier films. It’s an epic of sorts.”

The film also stars two filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Aditya Bhattacharya.

“I had earlier cast Aditya as a politician in ‘Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi’.”

The shooting of Pritish Nandy Communications’ “Devdas” now begins in November. And Chandramukhi is yet to be cast.

“The actress who signs on will have to trust me to create substantial space for her, just as Madhuri Dixit trusted Sanjay Leela Bhansali,” Mishra said.

— IANS

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