"You don't need stars to sell your film" - Vinta Nanda 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, November 18, 2004 - 03:17 IST
She was the woman behind Tara, which is still considered the 'mother of
all soaps'. After writing, producing and directing a few shows later,
Nanda took a self-imposed sabbatical only to come back now with her first film
called White Noise. The film, which is produced by Vinta along with her two
partners, stars Rahul Bose and Koel Purie. We spoke to Nanda about her first baby…
What's the noise all about?
It's a film that talks about two individuals, an engineer-turned-film
editor and a successful, single, attractive scriptwriter, how their
turmoil- filled individual lives meet on a common ground which is the
television industry which itself is laid on a shaky ground and how by the
end of it they find a common plateau, lay their demons to rest and come
to terms with their own lives and with each other. That's the crux of the
story.
Why have you called it White Noise?
It's a term in Physics, which means a noise containing more or less equal
intensities of many frequencies. When all those noises meet at an equal
frequency what results is a silence, which is called the white noise. It
suits my film, my characters' lives which are emotionally noisy and have
become one with the noise of the people around them, the changes the TV
industry is going through.”
What prompted you to make this film?
It all started when I saw how TV was impacting suburban lives the world
over. Earlier we had only DD but with Zee TV, the skies opened to us and
the satellite TV revolution gripped everybody. Everything changed for the
worse. One has seen writers and makers and one's peers conforming to make
programmes that very killed their freedom of expression. Some succumbed
while others just watched. This film came about from this need of mine to
make a statement on the changing society, thanks to television where
fiction is getting bizarre by the day!
You were initially to cast Karisma Kapoor and then Tabu. Now you have
cast Koel Purie, don't you think it might not prove to be commercially
viable?
Yeah, initially we did plan it with Karisma but she got busy with
her wedding and Tabu though had agreed to act in the film backed out at
the last moment. It was Rahul who suggested Koel and one meeting with her
was enough to make me realise that she was the one. The sensitivity the
two actors have brought to their roles and the film has taken my film to
a different level altogether. Besides, I think it's old-fashioned to
think that today a film needs to have saleable stars. Look at the success
of Murder! I think the fact that we have stuck by our film and almost
completed it shows our conviction in it.
Why did you make the film in Engligh?
Because I normally think in that language and it really suited the film.
English had to be the voice of the film, as we wanted it to be true to
its self. Also, I think the language doesn't really matter it's the
emotions which are universal.
You have had any apprehensions, any doubts while shooting?
(Smiles) As I said this film had become a need for me to fulfil so
desperately that it overpowered all my other anxieties, doubts and
apprehensions I might have had before starting it.
Are you sending the film to international film festivals?
Yes, it will go to the festivals before its worldwide release in
December.
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“I want to work in all languages, why just Hindi?” - Koel Purie
