It's been 13 years since he quit directing films — films that ranged from Arth and Saaransh to Aashiqui and Sadak. Mahesh Bhatt, however, lives and breathes cinema.
As the creative backbone of Vishesh Films, the banner he launched in 1987 with brother Mukesh Bhatt, he is the prolific overseer of what is arguably Hindi cinema's most successful film factory that is also mentor to a cavalcade of new talent on-screen and behind the camera, the crème-de-la-crème being Bipasha Basu, Emraan Hashmi, John Abraham, Mallika Sherawat, Kangana Ranaut, Nadeem-Shravan and Anu Malik besides directors Vikram Bhatt, Anurag Basu and Mohit Suri.
How does he explain his instinct for spotting new talent? "There must be some genius within me to spot potential, but we only flaunt our successes," he says, bluntly. "Sanity needs to have failure too, before we start thinking that we are invincible achievers. There have been so many newcomers who did not make the grade!"
Raaz 3, the new installment of one of Bhatt's many successful franchises, is on release, and Bhatt starts off with the first two names who feature in Raaz 3: Emraan and Bipasha.
Bhatt says, "Emraan always wanted to be an actor, even when he was assistant director. No one had confidence in him, not even Emraan himself. Forty-six takes were needed in his first shot for Footpath and after this flop debut, and even after hits like Murder, Gangster and Jannat, people were busy writing his obituary as an actor. Today, after Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, The Dirty Picture and our own Murder 2, he is a star who does not need me anymore."
Raaz 3 is the costliest film from the banner to date. "Director Vikram Bhatt also returns to us after a long gap," Bhatt reveals. Vikram, says Bhatt, was like any child who sets out independently. "He assisted me, turned director, did a lot of films for us, and had a natural thirst to work independently. A sadder, wiser, richer Vikram is back with us, and the decision was mutual. We made Raaz, a cult horror film, together and now we wanted to resurrect the brand that has his fingerprints on it. Meanwhile, Vikram has learnt 3D like no else has in India, and along with Prasad EFX, we have made a film that compares technically with the world's best in both horror and 3D."
The story of Raaz 3, says Bhatt, has a message that is very real, within the mass idiom of a horror film. "In our fiercely competitive world, where everyone respects only the guy who gets the gold, the film industry is no exception. An actor desires to stay eternally in the limelight, which is not possible. When we become prisoners of fame, the lines between right and wrong get blurred. From politicians and dons to television channels and actors, everyone tries everything to stay ahead. To destroy the competition, the tools used can be anything. And this film is about Bipasha's character and her endless hunger to remain successful at any cost."
Forty years after his debut film Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain was launched, Mahesh Bhatt is a human institution in Hindi cinema, a man who is the first favourite for a quote on any film or social issue. "I was probably born a rebel," smiles Bhatt wryly. "Instead of assisting my famous director-father Nanabhai Bhatt, I opted to assist Raj Khosla. In 1972, my friend Johny Bakshi offered me a film — a bold subject about two criminals on the run and their encounter with a prostitute. But in those days, my strange film that jolted the values of those times was banned. It was said to have subverted the institution of marriage! At that early point in my career, I realised that while we may be told we are free, we are actually not. And I failed to understand this odd preoccupation with sex. How can something be morally wrong and suddenly become right after marriage?"
His next three star-studded films were calamities. "But I charmed my actors because I could draw good performances from them. I learnt on the job — by stumbling, fumbling, failing and faltering, till, drawing from my own life, I made Arth (1983)." From his later films, which include more critically-acclaimed movies like Saaransh, Janam and Kaash, and blockbusters like Naam, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin and Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, Bhatt has no favourites. "I never deluded myself that I was not a product of mainstream cinema, because I was!" says Bhatt of this phase. "After Naam, I became the box-office wunderkind, and finally a workaholic director who did not even go on the sets while directing five films at a time, because suddenly something had withered within me. While producers justifiably lambasted me, the only silver lining was that my assistants Vikram and Milan Luthria became experts as they had to take over! On the advice of my spiritual guru U G Krishnamurthi, I quit something in which my heart wasn't there any longer — directing films."
Thunders Bhatt, "But I quit with glory. Zakham faced censor trouble like my first film, but also won a National award! In 2000, Mukesh and I decided to make films that aimed only at box-office success, and make them without stars. The last 12 to 14 years have been stimulating. We have optimised production and have followed the model of table-profit, which means that we recover the investments and make a slim profit even before the films open in the theatres." He goes on, "I am definitely the creative force in the inception, execution and marketing phases, but I am not the remote control. I cannot take credit for something that I haven't done, and I will certainly not let anyone take the blame for my handiwork!"