Critics' favourite Sudhir Mishra breathes easy after Prakash Jha Productions decides to produce his films

Critics' favourite Sudhir Mishra breathes easy after Prakash Jha Productions decides to produce his films

Chameli director Sudhir Mishra has been recently seen wearing a tranquil smile. It probably has to do with two of Bollywood's foremost avant-garde directors teaming up for a merger. Mishra's forthcoming films, starting with the Irrfan Khan, Chitrangada Singh-starrer Yeh Saali Zindagi, will be produced by Prakash Jha.

"I can finally focus on making films instead of anxiously looking over my shoulder and worrying about what will happen to my films once they are complete. I am a creative man, with little idea of how to steer production and marketing," admits the director known to mainstream Hindi cinema viewers as the man who made Kareena Kapoor play a convincing prostitute in Chameli.

Industry people are surprised at how easily the fiercely independent filmmaker has incorporated Jha's suggestions for Yeh Saali..."Sudhir and I are like-minded filmmakers. If two creative minds are on the same wavelength, that's good news. Yes, I did suggest some changes during the editing of Yeh Saali..., and Sudhir didn't mind incorporating them. He too is free to make suggestions about films I will direct," says Jha.

Mishra is not the only filmmaker Jha is supporting. Debutante director Alankrita Shrivastava's Turning 30 is the story of a suburban 30 year-old woman's (played by Gul Panag) tryst with loneliness. Jha is producing it.
While the director-producer says he will continue to make Raajneeti-style blockbusters, other directors will have the freedom to create intimate, tight-budgeted cinema for his production house.

Jha of course, holds the final say on scripts and editing. Is that creative freedom on a leash? "It's only fair that I should have the right to fine-tune the script. I don't see how that's compromising on freedom."

In fact, old buddy and actor Nana Patekar is expected tou00a0 direct a film for Jha. But first, there is Karan Nath, Madhuri Dixit's secretary Rakesh (Rikku) Nath's son, who will act in a Jha Production directed by his assistant Anshuman. The film is about a boy and his motorcycle dreams.