JOIN USIn the seven years that he has been in the industry, Kabeer Kaushik has written and directed three films so far. Kabeer, a self-made man in this highly competitive industry, released his Maximum.
Starring Sonu Sood, Naseeruddin Shah and Neha Dhupia, the film is a story of achieving maximum power between two encounter cops Pratap Pandit and Arun Inamdar.
Panned by critics the film hasn’t had encouraging collections either. Could it be that Naseeruddin Shah’s role was very limited in the film? “The promos were to bring in audiences. It is primarily the story of Pratap Pandit. Others are incidental,” Kabeer says.
And why include an item song in a film like this one, which by the way turned out to be the film’s USP? Kabeer feels, “a good product needs to be marketed well. Apart from that, it is a part and parcel of the film. It is required at inflection point and helps take forward the narrative,” he adds.
Where did you get the inspiration for the film? “Pradeep Sharma, the encounter specialist of Mumbai,” he is quick to respond. The character of Sonu Sood – Pratap Pandit – is loosely based on Pradeep Sharma. “I had long discussions with him to get the full background on him,” he says.
And how did he choose his actors? “In Bollywood, this happens organically,” he says. How did he choose Neha Dhupia for such a de-glam role?
“For Neha’s character, we’d thought of someone else but she backed out. Then someone else backed out. Then we called on Neha and she was gracious enough to accept this role which was quite the opposite of what she does usually,” he informs.
For Sonu, he says, “It always has to be someone who can contribute to the film. Sonu fitted very well in role and it has been great working with him.”
His movies are serious and usually based on cops. Is there a special connection? “A good story chose me and I made a film on it. There’s nothing particular about it,” he says.
Will his future endeavours shift from this genre? “As of now I’m concentrating on Maximum. One film at a time is good enough,” he ends.