The students at Whistling Woods International were overwhelmed by the special interaction with the director of the film 'Shaitan', Mr. Bejoy Nambiar. Also present alongwith him were the cast and crew of the film, Neil Bhoopalam, Kirti Kulhari, Rajkumar Yadav, Pavan Malhotra, action director - Javed Bhai and dialogue writer - Abhijit Deshpande. Moderating the session was Prof. Rajen Kothari, professor of cinematography at WWI and also director of photography for several films like Well Done Abba, Zubeida, Ghayal and many more. A critically acclaimed commercial success, 'Shaitan' was released in June this year.
Having seen the movie the previous day, a large audience of young media professionals loaded with questions, welcomed the team of 'Shaitan'. A multi starrer thriller, with no defined protagonist, each character was plagued by their own evils. Delving first into the characterization of the film, Bejoy Nambiar said, "Each character was defined on paper very clearly. On the sets however the actors were allowed the creative license to interpret their character, the way they saw it." Adding to this, dialogue writer Abhijit Deshpande, who was all praise for his director said, "While working with Bejoy I realized that, not all my dialogues necessarily translate well on screen. Ever since then, I left him to tweak or modify the dialogues. At the end of the day it's not only the writer who is to be credited for the characterization and dialogues, but also the director."
The baton of questions was then handed to the skilled and experienced actor Pawan Malhotra from 'Black Friday' and 'Jab We Met' fame. On being asked about how he felt working with a young director like Bejoy, he said, "Earlier I thought I would not accept the role as I had to play a Commissioner in the film which is usually a very stereotypical and boring character, but Bejoy added flavour to my character." Basking in the glory of the famous song sequence, 'Khoya Khoya Chand' and 'Hawa Hawai' he gave full credit to Bejoy and Javed bhai, the action director. Shyly adding to this, Javed bhai, who is also the action director for 'Don 2', said, "When I was approached for this film, I was told that there would be a few action sequences, however as the film progressed we kept on adding more to it. It was a thrilling experience to experiment and add action to the songs." Kirti Kulhari shared her experience on the sets, talking about the times she laughed, cried off screen and on screen. Raj Kumar Yadav of 'LSD' fame and Neil Bhoopalam also shared their experiences and kept the students hooked on to every word.
Adding to the brilliant and gripping soundtrack along with the raw and remarkable action scenes, Bejoy said, "80% of it was real live sound. This helped the audience connect even better to each scene in the film. Mumbai is a difficult city for live sounds. A well equipped technical team is a must and we were blessed with it."
Students threw all sorts of questions at the film crew who eagerly answered them all. This time round even the teachers threw questions at the team. Bejoy wrapped the session saying, "It was a great experience. I'm extremely thankful to have been given the opportunity to interact with such brilliant young minds. For someone who wants film education at its best, Whistling Woods International is the right platform. Anyone who wants to be a film maker must start from here."
The master class with the entire team of 'Shaitan' was indeed very productive as it gave students insights and details into the process of making a successful film.
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