'I am going to take a sabbatical'

IFFI 2010 is held every year at Goa and is organised by the Directorate of Film Festival in association with the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG).

“Now I am going to take a sabbatical for one year and then will direct a Hindi film,” Ghai said. “I may start a movie with newcomer,” he added. The film-maker is at the IFFI 2010 to promote his Bengali film Nauka Dubi, based on a novel by the late Rabindranath Tagore. The film is directed by Ritupurno Ghosh, who is also coming to the IFFI 2010 for the film screening.

Subhash Ghai said he is concentrating on producing films in various languages like Marathi, Bengali and others, which has kept him away from directing a Hindi film. “I also run the Whistling Woods International Institute for Films. We are busy expanding the school in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Haryana,” said Ghai, who has directed films like Taal, Ram Lakhan, Kalicharan and Hero amongst many others.  

The filmmaker said that he would like to introduce a new face in the forthcoming movie. “It all depends on the subject. In Yuvraaj, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif acted but after that, I produced a movie called Black & White in which, a new face was introduced,” he said.

“Recently we did a movie named Pashchim Express, which was directed by the students of my film school. They even acted in it,” Ghai said. “I do introduce new faces. For me, they are actors and not stars. If they fit in the role, I approach them,” he added.

The 1945-born director, who has witnessed four decades of filmmaking, said that Bollywood has progressed only in certain ways. “I have discovered that many movies are really very bad even if they are big hits at the box office,” he said. “Technically, we are far ahead but when it comes to content, we are still lagging behind,” Ghai said comparing the current Hindi movies with those of the past.