Madhur Bhandarkar says he is keeping options on making a sequel to his award winning film Page 3 open.
''Many people have asked me about this. I am not sure. May be I will give it a try sometime later,'' Madhur, who is in Goa for the International Film Festival of India, told a press conference at the Kala Academy.
He said he had so much inputs on the party life of Mumbai and other big cities that he could make many Page 3s. Replying to a question on whether he plans a film on an adaptation of a celebrated book, Madhur, who is currently working on Corporate and Signal said, ''I may do so when I run out of my original story ideas.'' Madhur said. Corporate starring Bipasha Basu and K K Menon is 30 per cent complete and is scheduled for release in March 2006.
Replying to a question, Madhur said there was no reference to the Reliance inheritance saga in Corporate. ''Both Bipasha and K K are employees in the corporate world and the film focusses on boardroom politics,'' he said.
His other film Signal will peep into the lives of people at traffic signals -- those looking out of their car windows and those peeping inside them. ''The film is still in the scripting stage and it will be made with mostly newcomers. It will be a male dominated film'', the director said.
The director said he made Page 3 not to pass a judgement on the lives of socialiates in Mumbai but portraying them through the eyes of a journalist. ''The idea to make this film came to me on the basis of my experiences of attending parties. I like to observe people around me and attempt to explore them on screen. I decided to make the journalist my protagonist for the film as I happened to drop few of my journalist friends to the bus stop from a seven-star hotel where they were attending a party. Journalists are ordinary people who have access to the high and mighty in society,'' he said.
Madhur felt success of his film lay in its depiction of the human story. He expressed satisfaction that his gamble and conviction in doing the film had paid off. ''It is because I was honest,'' he said and added that the audience got a see of a different kind of film in the beginning of this year.
''Konkana Sen Sharma," said Madhur, "fitted into the shoes of the character as she a typical middle class look. Besides, she wanted to work with me. Lot of regular page 3 people gave me several inputs and acted in my film. Dolly Thakore, Kishen Mulchandani among others are cases in point. The page 3 regulars were not offended on seeing the film,'' Madhur added. He is of the view there is no doctrine or formula for box office success because the audience is ruthless in their judgement. ''They want to see a good film which is entertaining and innovative,'' he said.
The director points out that finding distributors was a problem for filmmakers like him. ''If Chandni Bar had not succeeded, I would not have been making my kind of films. Besides, now with the INOX and PVR cinemas, it is easy for the producer to approach the exhibitor directly.
Madhur sees lot of scope and opportunties for filmmakers like him who want to bridge the gap between mainstream formula films and innovative entertaining films as the audience, he feels, is looking for a change.
''2005 was a good year for all kinds of cinema. Films like No Entry and Bunty Aur Babli did well and so did Iqbal and Page 3.''
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