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'If I wasn't a film-maker, I'd have been a serial killer'

Kaizad Gustad.

Till a month back, you could have asked Kaizad who? Superbrat Kaizad Gustad, 30, has suddenly burst upon Bombay's creative scene with Bombay Boys, a low-cost, high-voltage film that has astonished the pundits with its spectacular initial collections nationwide.

His dreadlocks dangling, the cocky Parsi film-maker is the new toast of Bollywood. Challenging conventions. Questioning age-old verities. Excerpts from an interview with Pritish Nandy:

You were a writer. How did you suddenly think of making Bombay Boys?

Well, I just got fed up of seeing the same nonsense. There's a line in Bombay Boys which describes it as the usual "chutiapanthi." I felt both commercial cinema and the parallel cinema had lost their purpose. That they were floundering.

It's important for film-makers today to make films that are relevant to who they are, where they are coming from, what they want to do. It's not important any more to worry about what the market wants, what some pundit somewhere sat down and said: Hey shit, this is what will work. It is films that are personal, that are independent that will work.

In this context, I just wanted to make a film that was personal, which was relevant to the world I knew, the kind of people I had met. Relevant to the city that I loved to death, which I thought had never been properly represented before.

How come then you left the city and went away for such a long time, you had No Fixed Address?

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That was because I was broke. Perpetually broke. I could never afford a place in this city and that is why I had no fixed address. I left it when I was 18 and travelled the world for 10 years. When I got back, I was just a PG on Pedder Road. In a ten feet by eight feet room that was my apartment-cum-office-cum-everything when I made Bombay Boys.

You don't need a lot of money if you have a lot of integrity, a lot of vision, a lot of discipline. The reason why the budgets here are crazy is because everyone is totally indisciplined. You don't need three years to make a film, for God's sake.

How many days did you take to make Bombay Boys?

Forty-eight days, from start to finish.

You had a completely structured script before you started shooting?

From page 1 to page 110. Broken down by dates. On day 42 at 4.30 pm I knew what my third shot would be. That's the only way to do it.

And you did it exactly that way? Shot to shot. Minute to minute.

Absolutely. I used only 100,000 feet of film. That is nothing. A 3 to 1 ratio. What you could call typical first film blues. No money but let us just do it any which way one can. I had no money when I declared the film. But I said: F*** it, I will make it any which way I can. I raised money while I shot the film. I sent out my photographs, my stills through the Internet. I was downloading my rushes and sending them out globally.

Are you publishing the script now that the film's a success?

Absolutely. Harper Collins has asked for it

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Since you were so broke, where did you get the money to make Bombay Boys?

It came from all over the world. From America, England.

Independent investors or studios?

Independent investors.

People who have invested in showbiz before?

Not necessarily. It was just people who wanted to do something different with their investments. For India, I would like to believe. Because this is a very positive film. At the end of the film, you come out saying: 'Hey, for the first time, someone has shot a really modern Bombay. An urban Bombay.'

And why the hell not? What are we afraid of? Why is the camera always trained on slums or beggar children? I can list you references from Louis Malle's Calcutta in 1971, which got the BBC banned in this country, all the way to the most recent foreign films shot in this country.

They all show an India full of beggars and slums. Or the India of mysticism, religion, reincarnations, sadhus, fakirs, godmen, where a bull will read your fortune. Ta da da da da da da and so on. They just refuse to show modern, progressive, urban India.

I was so fed up seeing this rubbish. I have lived abroad for so long and the most interesting person I have ever met is the Indian who has never been to India. Especially the second- or third-generation Indian born and brought up in Sydney, London, New York. They are so desperate to find their identity that they are clinging to an India that is archaic, passe, cliched and so deprogressive!

But they also love to watch candy floss India? Look how Kuch Kuch Hota Hai became one of the top ten most watched films in London last year! That was a contemporary film, a young film.

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Yeah, it was contemporary. But it was not urban. I like the idea of a young film-maker, however, making a film that he can identify with. The audience feels that if a film-maker can identify with a film that he's made, it is not a job for hire. Today, directors for hire have become passe. You have got to know what you are doing. You have got to say what you want to say. You become autistic.

Nagesh, Dev, Karan Johar, Ram Gopal Verma are all auteurs in the truest sense of the word. Which means: Hey, screw everything else, I don't want to look at statistics, numbers, nothing. This is a story that I want to tell and I am going to tell it.

That's what happened in 1998, which I think is absolutely remarkable. We have gone back to the core of film-making and thrown out all labels. Bombay Boys has enough masti, enough seriousness. It defies glib definitions and works at a basic level. If I wasn't a film-maker, I would have been a serial killer. Or something like that. It is a fabulous turning point for films in India.

Then how come such films are restricted only to matinee shows or one screening a day?

It's changing, Pritish. For instance, we started at 1 pm in Eros and all shows at Cinemagic because all the colleges were closed in the city. It was the holiday weekend. Colleges open on the 8th and we are going to do all shows at Eros. We are knocking out big films like Wajood!

Look, I have a list here which I want to show you. I got it yesterday and it blew me to high waters. The list is hand-written because this is how this damned industry works. It shows all the places where Bombay Boys is opening.

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It is opening in Delhi, in West Bengal, in Bihar for God's bloody sake, in CP Berar, I don't even know where that is, in CI, in Rajasthan, in Nizam, in Mysore, in Tamil Nadu, in Kerala. These are the guys who have bought the film and are willing to distribute it and take that risk.

I understand Kerala and, may be, Delhi and Calcutta. But what's happening in Nizam and Mysore and Rajasthan and CP Berar, wherever the hell that is, and Bihar... For God's sake, is unbelievable! Somebody called Vijaylakshmi Pictures has bought the film in Patna and I say, great, more power to him. I will go and shave my head to get a 100 people to come and see the film out there!

Are your investors happy?

Delighted. Everyone's done well. Everyone's made money. That bodes well for a lot of young film-makers. It was crucial for Bombay Boys to become a hit. If it didn't, a lot more doors would have shut for independent film-making.

How much did the film cost to make?

A pittance, frankly. Less than the cost of a song sequence or a set in the typical commercial film that you see out here.

Do you have your next film in mind?

Nope.

Do you plan to make another film?

Of course. I will be writing it during the whole of 1999. That's the way I work. I will go off to Goa and write it. I can't write in Bombay. It's too frenzied out here and, unlike other guys who make three films a year, I make one film in three years.

And you don't want to go off again? I mean out of India for another ten years?

No, I just can't do without living here now.