In the midst of the publicity blitzkrieg that she organised for her second release as producer, Teen Patti, producer Ambika Hinduja couldn’t celebrate her first wedding anniversary. The petite young woman got married to industrialist and restaurateur Raman Macker, whom she worked with for eight years before tying the knot with, on February 12 last year. But on that day this year, she sheepishly reveals, she and hubby dearest were “in office till a quarter to 12 at night”.
But business, and busy-ness, run in her family. She’s the daughter of Ashok Hinduja, the youngest of the four Hinduja brothers. She studied filmmaking in London and then assisted Subhash Ghai, on Yaadein, and then Farhan Akhtar on Lakshya. In 2005, she launched her own film production company, and her first release was the dark, quirky and offbeat Being Cyrus. Excerpts from an interview:
What’s happened in your life between Being Cyrus and Teen Patti?
Being Cyrus was my first film as a producer, and I was casting director on it too. I haven’t done anything since then other than planning and preparing for Teen Patti. Moviemaking is a business, but a creative job at the end of the day, and I’m in favour of quality as opposed to quantity. If I have to make a film I’m passionate about it doesn’t matter how many movies I’m making a year.
How did Teen Patti – also slightly offbeat in its casting – come about?
Leena (Yadav, the director) and I met during the release of Shabd (Leena’s first film as director) and Being Cyrus. This is her second film and my second film as well, and we decided we’d work together because we get along really well. We developed a project earlier but scrapped it, and then Leena came up with the idea of Teen Patti. Shiv (Kumar Subramaniam) and she wrote it, and I was the bouncing board. Once we had a story, and we knew it was good enough, we took it to Mr Bachchan, and he agreed to do it. During the writing process, Leena said, what if Mr Bachchan doesn’t agree to do it? And I said, then we’re not making it. No other actor could have played Venkat.
When did you decide you wanted to make movies?
When I was very young. I was a teenager – about 13, 14 – and I knew I wanted to get into films. As a family, our only source of entertainment together was films. My dad’s a big film buff, and my family has been in the movie biz through finance and distribution. I guess it was my genes.
You’ve assisted Subhash Ghai and Farhan Akhtar – how did that happen?
After I came back from film school in London, I was offered a job. Mr Ghai, who is also a family friend, had gone to London for the mahurat of Yaadein. My uncles were invited, and in conversation, they said, you know, ‘Ambika’s getting into your business’, and he asked, ‘Would she like to work as an assistant director on Yaadein?’ When I was offered the job, I wasn’t even ready to work, but I wasn’t gonna say no! It was a very good experience, completely different from what I was taught at film school. And every school of thought, every experience is a great one. Hands on is the best way to learn. And then, of course, I worked with Farhan for nine months. That was totally fantastic.
They’re very different kinds of filmmakers, aren’t they?
Yes! One was old school and one was completely new age. The whole process was completely different. But both were great. I also worked with Mahesh Manjrekar for three months while he was scripting a film that finally didn’t get made.
Why, after all that, did you choose to become a producer and not a director?
I wanted to have my own company and establish it. Which is why the production company.
Being Cyrus had a very interesting, very offbeat cast ... How did you choose those people, especially Saif?
When Homi (Adajania, director of Being Cyrus) came to me with the script, it wasn’t called Being Cyrus then. It was called Maasko. He’d come to me with the 18th or 19th draft, if I’m not mistaken. A common friend told me, ‘I’ve got a friend, and he’s got a really cool script, why don’t you meet him, same sensibilities’ and all that. And I said, sure. I called him and said ‘Send me a synopsis, ’cos I can’t read every script’. He emailed it to me. I didn’t even have an office then – I was working out of home. Twenty minutes later, he landed up there! He started narrating it, and halfway through, I’d decided that this was going to be my first film. A lot of people said, are you sure, it’s English and art noire and not mainstream... I said, I believe in it and I’m going to make it. Homi had already narrated the idea to Saif and he had, in principle, agreed. I told Homi that to make it, we’d better get faces that are known. Fortunately, Dimple, Naseer, Simone, Boman, all agreed. We had a blast making it. I believe anything that recovers money or makes money is commercial, whether it’s mainstream or offbeat. We didn’t expect Cyrus to do as well as it did; we made it on a very small budget but it recovered its money and made more! More importantly, it opened the market for other movies of its kind. It was made for a niche market, being English and dark, but the market that it was made for loved it.
Was it difficult to get a foreign actor to do a mainstream Hindi film, as in Teen Patti?
Of course, I’d never even tried to get a foreign actor before. It’s the first time in Indian cinema that we’ve had an Oscar-winner. We got very lucky because we sent him the script and he said yes. And Mr Bachchan said yes, and Maddy (R Madhavan) said yes. What more could I ask for?
But business, and busy-ness, run in her family. She’s the daughter of Ashok Hinduja, the youngest of the four Hinduja brothers. She studied filmmaking in London and then assisted Subhash Ghai, on Yaadein, and then Farhan Akhtar on Lakshya. In 2005, she launched her own film production company, and her first release was the dark, quirky and offbeat Being Cyrus. Excerpts from an interview:
What’s happened in your life between Being Cyrus and Teen Patti?
Being Cyrus was my first film as a producer, and I was casting director on it too. I haven’t done anything since then other than planning and preparing for Teen Patti. Moviemaking is a business, but a creative job at the end of the day, and I’m in favour of quality as opposed to quantity. If I have to make a film I’m passionate about it doesn’t matter how many movies I’m making a year.
How did Teen Patti – also slightly offbeat in its casting – come about?
Leena (Yadav, the director) and I met during the release of Shabd (Leena’s first film as director) and Being Cyrus. This is her second film and my second film as well, and we decided we’d work together because we get along really well. We developed a project earlier but scrapped it, and then Leena came up with the idea of Teen Patti. Shiv (Kumar Subramaniam) and she wrote it, and I was the bouncing board. Once we had a story, and we knew it was good enough, we took it to Mr Bachchan, and he agreed to do it. During the writing process, Leena said, what if Mr Bachchan doesn’t agree to do it? And I said, then we’re not making it. No other actor could have played Venkat.
When did you decide you wanted to make movies?
When I was very young. I was a teenager – about 13, 14 – and I knew I wanted to get into films. As a family, our only source of entertainment together was films. My dad’s a big film buff, and my family has been in the movie biz through finance and distribution. I guess it was my genes.
You’ve assisted Subhash Ghai and Farhan Akhtar – how did that happen?
After I came back from film school in London, I was offered a job. Mr Ghai, who is also a family friend, had gone to London for the mahurat of Yaadein. My uncles were invited, and in conversation, they said, you know, ‘Ambika’s getting into your business’, and he asked, ‘Would she like to work as an assistant director on Yaadein?’ When I was offered the job, I wasn’t even ready to work, but I wasn’t gonna say no! It was a very good experience, completely different from what I was taught at film school. And every school of thought, every experience is a great one. Hands on is the best way to learn. And then, of course, I worked with Farhan for nine months. That was totally fantastic.
They’re very different kinds of filmmakers, aren’t they?
Yes! One was old school and one was completely new age. The whole process was completely different. But both were great. I also worked with Mahesh Manjrekar for three months while he was scripting a film that finally didn’t get made.
Why, after all that, did you choose to become a producer and not a director?
I wanted to have my own company and establish it. Which is why the production company.
Being Cyrus had a very interesting, very offbeat cast ... How did you choose those people, especially Saif?
When Homi (Adajania, director of Being Cyrus) came to me with the script, it wasn’t called Being Cyrus then. It was called Maasko. He’d come to me with the 18th or 19th draft, if I’m not mistaken. A common friend told me, ‘I’ve got a friend, and he’s got a really cool script, why don’t you meet him, same sensibilities’ and all that. And I said, sure. I called him and said ‘Send me a synopsis, ’cos I can’t read every script’. He emailed it to me. I didn’t even have an office then – I was working out of home. Twenty minutes later, he landed up there! He started narrating it, and halfway through, I’d decided that this was going to be my first film. A lot of people said, are you sure, it’s English and art noire and not mainstream... I said, I believe in it and I’m going to make it. Homi had already narrated the idea to Saif and he had, in principle, agreed. I told Homi that to make it, we’d better get faces that are known. Fortunately, Dimple, Naseer, Simone, Boman, all agreed. We had a blast making it. I believe anything that recovers money or makes money is commercial, whether it’s mainstream or offbeat. We didn’t expect Cyrus to do as well as it did; we made it on a very small budget but it recovered its money and made more! More importantly, it opened the market for other movies of its kind. It was made for a niche market, being English and dark, but the market that it was made for loved it.
Was it difficult to get a foreign actor to do a mainstream Hindi film, as in Teen Patti?
Of course, I’d never even tried to get a foreign actor before. It’s the first time in Indian cinema that we’ve had an Oscar-winner. We got very lucky because we sent him the script and he said yes. And Mr Bachchan said yes, and Maddy (R Madhavan) said yes. What more could I ask for?
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