"I didn't even meet Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah while approaching for their roles in my film" – Neeraj Pandey 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, May 19, 2007 - 08:28 IST
Khosla Ka Ghosla and Wednesday – what do these two films belonging to diverse genres have in common? It is the fact that both films are small-budget movies sans any stars to boast off produced independently but subsequently taken over by UTV. And going by UTV’s repertoire of films, content indeed seems to the factor acting in the film’s merit. “Anjum Rizvi and Sheetal Bhatia were the producers of this film when we began shooting. Mr B.L. Goutam from UTV asked for this project. He was very interested in the script and the project altogether. Talks about this project were going on when I was working on the film. I believe UTV must have liked the subject to take over”, explains the debutante director of Wednesday, Neeraj Pandey.
Isn’t Wednesday unusual for a Bollywood title? “When I started my film, Sunday and (Black) Friday were already taken. So I wasn’t left with many options”, laughs the director on a funny note. On a more serious note he justifies, “The story of this film happens on Wednesday. It’s a thriller drama set between 2pm to 6pm on one Wednesday. Anupam Kher plays the Commissioner of Police of Mumbai. He talks about a case that has not been registered in any police record”.
Apart from Anupam Kher, the film stars Jimmy Shergill, Rajpal Yadav, Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw and Naseeruddin Shah in principal roles. “Jimmy plays an IPS officer, Aamir Bashir a cop and Deepal plays a television journalist”. Didn’t he miss on Naseeruddin Shah? “For Naseeruddin’s character you will have to wait and watch the film. I don’t want to reveal his character”, the director sounds secretive.
Was it easy to get in seasoned actors like Naseeruddin and Anupam Kher for his debut film? “You know an interesting fact is that I didn’t even meet them while approaching for their roles in my film. I just sent them my script and they were on. I didn’t have to convince them”.
Any script needs approximately seven days to complete
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Interestingly the script that he is so confident about was written in a span of only a week. “Any script needs approximately seven days. Sometimes less than seven days. It doesn’t take much to make a film of two hours. If you count the number of hours that you put in and when you sit down and think about the story that’s where the major time goes”.
The cast of Wednesday lacks star value though it comprises of veteran actors like Kher and Naseeruddin. So does he think actors work over stars? “It’s not about who works over whom. Script tells you who to cast and these are some of the best talented people in the country. I feel this story needed to be told. It’s not a question of preference. It is just that these actors fit the bill and we made a good movie.”
Like all modern day slick thrillers, even Wednesday will be devoid of any interruptions in the form of onscreen songs. “The format of the story didn’t have any scope for songs. Everything happens within a span of four hours. And then we are actually bringing those four hours into two hours. So where would anyone get time to sing a song in the film? However there is some gripping background music in the film done by Sanjay Chaudhary”, says Neeraj
Wednesday is about how the police department fights back a terrorist attack on the city of Mumbai. Did Neeraj need to do any research for the subject? “Wednesday is not based on any real life incident or inspired by anything. It’s totally fictional. So I did the background research for the characters and not for the story. It was a good story and I felt it needed to be told. It talks about the people like us more than terrorism. It’s about the choices offered to us and the decisions that we make”, concludes the director.
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