NAGESH KUKUNOOR

NAGESH KUKUNOOR

A Chemical engineer from U.S. of A, Nagesh Kukunoor has redefined Indian cinema by making a successful film like 'Hyderabad Blues' on a shoestring budget. His amateurish attempt in filmmaking has triggered hosts of other filmmakers to attempt making films of that genre. After popular and offbeat films like 'Hyderabad Blues' and 'Rockford ' Nagesh's 'Bollywood Calling' has been very well received all over India.

He did his masters in Georgia, Atlanta and then worked as an environmental consultant in the U.S. Giving up a lucrative career, Nagesh managed to pursue his true dream of making a movie. After completing a series of workshops in film and television, in addition to studying acting as well as directing actors at the Warehouse Actor's Theatre in Atlanta, Nagesh co-produced and directed a short film, "One culture at a time", in 1995.

Returning to India with just his savings and loans, Nagesh produced, wrote, acted and directed the immensely successful 'Hyderabd Blues'. Hyderabad Blues was made in just 17 days flat on a miniscule budget of just Rs 17 lakhs.The film was Shot as a trilingual film with dialogue in English, Hindi and Telugu.The film was pre-produced for about a year before actual production began. Not being able to afford a proper production team or even a production manager, he chose to cast the film himself auditioning each and every actor and convincing them to act in the film without any compensation. Relatives and friends came to his aid and all locations except the marriage hall for the film's climax were provided free.

There were initial hiccups though; the distributor had to give away thousands of tickets free for the first couple of days before the craze caught on. Eventually the film went on to become the largest grossing low budget Indian film in English. Some of the box-office records in India were astounding given the fact that the film was not what was traditionally defined as "commercial 'in Indian Filmdom. It ran to packed houses for 31 weeks in Mumbai, 28 weeks in Hyderabad and 28 weeks in Bangalore. It has featured in about 10 international film festivals. With it's commercial box office success in India Kukunoor has created a new genre in Indian cinema that of the low budget films that break the traditional barrier of both commercial and art cinema.

After the success of his first movie, he went on to work with well-known actors and experimented in several genres. Rockford was a coming-of-the-age movie set in a boarding school and co-starred Nandita Das. Bollywood Calling was a satirical look at the Bollywood industry through the eyes of a failed Hollywood actor and co-starred Om Puri, Navin Nishchol and Perizaad Zorabian. His next movie, Teen Deewarein was a thriller, loosely inspired by The Shawshank Redemption; it had actors such as Naseeruddin Shah, Juhi Chawla and Jackie Shroff. His next venture supposed to star Amitabh Bachchan in the role of a chef and tentatively titled Tandoor has been put on hold for undisclosed reasons. He made a sequel to Hyderabad Blues but it was not successful. Unlike in his earlier movies, he did not star in his 2005 movie Iqbal. So far, he himself has written the story and screenplay for all his movies and hopes to continue the same in future too.

He believes that the primary purpose of movies is to serve as a medium of entertainment and opposes the idea that films must teach; though he would consider it all the better if even the latter happens. This belief of his found expression in his movie Iqbal, which looks at the story of a deaf and dumb cricketer hailing from a poor Muslim family who wants to make it to the Indian cricket team.

Nagesh Kukunoor's movie Dor (2006) got rave reviews in India. Dor tells the moving story of love, loss, friendship, hope and redemption. It is a tale of two women from two different worlds. The emphasis is on spirit and emotions.

Future projects

Nagesh Kukunoor has entered into a partnership with Percept Picture Company to direct two films in 2007. The first has been named as Aashayein and the second will be called Bemisal. John Abraham has been selected as the lead actor for Aashayein where he will play a compulsive gambler who discovers new meanings of life through a dramatic turn of events.

Awards

• Audience Award for best film at the Peachtree International Film Festival in Atlanta for the film Hyderabad Blues.
• Audience Award for best film at the Rhode Island Film Festival for the film Hyderabad Blues.
• Teacher's Achievement Award for Creative and Performing Arts in 2002.
• Best Story award at the 2003 Filmfare awards for the film Teen Deewarein.

Filmography

• Hyderabad Blues (1998)
• Rockford (1999)
• Bollywood Calling (2001)
• 3 Deewarein (2003)
• Hyderabad Blues 2: Rearranged Marriage(2004)
• Iqbal (2005)
• Dor (2006)