RAKESH ANAND BAKSHI ON WRITING, FILMMAKERS AND HIS LYRICIST DAD
By Adite Banerjie.
Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming to my blog Rakesh Anand Bakshi, author of “Directors’ Diaries: The Road to their First Film“. is a huge contribution in filling that gap. The book is studded with interviews of some of the top filmmakers of Bollywood–ranging from Subhash Ghai to Imtiaz Ali, Govind Nihalani to Farah Khan, Zoya Akhtar to Vishal Bharadwaj. Bakshi’s interviews with 12 directors open up the world of Indian cinema and also the filmmakers’ signature styles. It also is a peep into their personal journeys, the ups and downs of their careers, the heartbreaks and triumphs and how these have shaped their own films. The book explores the working relationships between directors and their cinematographers, editors and art directors, providing insights that are valuable not only to the lay film enthusiast but also to budding filmmakers. For Bakshi, who is the son of renowned Bollywood lyricist Anand Bakshi, it is a labour of love. Over to Rakesh….
Hi Rakesh. Welcome to my blog. What inspired you to write Directors’ Diaries?
RB: Sometime in 2002, I read in a book that David Lean, the English film director known for films like Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zhivago, etc., used to be a tea boy. He then became a messenger, then an editor and finally a director. It made me wonder about David Lean’s life and I thought if he hadn’t started as a tea boy with a film production company, he perhaps wouldn’t have become a director. Maybe he would not have discovered his love for films. Was that the only job he could get then, or he took up the job as a tea boy in a production company because he wanted to be closer to his dream to be a filmmaker?
I also realized that most people who aspire to be film directors often find the path to their dream unfathomable, because most of them and their families do not have background in films. But maybe it had nothing to do with that. I belong to a family involved in films and I had studied film-making, acting and writing abroad. I had also assisted an excellent writer and director. And yet I couldn’t make a film. I wondered, sometimes almost angrily, how so many people without any background in films managed to direct films. There was an angst in me to explore how they managed to make a film but I didn’t. And this curiosity and anguish is shared by millions of others who are trying to make it into the industry!
I knew there was a book here. This thirst and hunger to know how directors I admire make films urged me to interview them, to somehow know them and their creative processes better. Some of the questions to which I had always wanted answers were: What constitutes a director, emotionally or otherwise? Can a person educate himself/herself to be a film-maker? How does one end up here and how does one get their first break in this industry? I wanted to know more about their experiences and influences as I knew that even my answers lay there.
Each interview in this book left me feeling enriched and today I am more fulfilled than ever because of the things that these directors’ choices, stories, experiences and lives taught me. And that is what I hope this book does for anyone who aspires to be something in his or her life. Most importantly, I hope this effort can help someone make a film someday.
Each of the filmmakers have paved their own paths and every story is inspiring. Which of these stories did you like the most?
Though they all enriched me in varied ways, some things amongst many others left their mark on me long after I had interviewed them. Anurag Basu’s love for his father inspired him unknowingly and his will to defeat cancer. Ashutosh Gowariker’s pursuit for perfection made him accept his shortcomings as an actor. Farah Khan’s love for her father fo whom she suppressed her passion for dance through her childhood and teens. Govindji (Nihalani) for whose fascination for cinema and photography made him choose cinematography. Imtiaz Ali’s childhood memories of discovering the reading room in his house and how failing the ninth class inspired him. Mahesh Bhatt Saab for his deep insights into humanity. Santosh Sivan for how he ‘understood’ light while being made to look out for rain during the hockey games his friends played but did not include him. Prakash Jha who did not take money from his father but worked in restaurants to survive in Bombay, pay his college fees and cook meals for his teachers so that they would mark his presence in college. Tigmanshu’s years at NSD and his grit during the seven years that he chased his dream to make his first film. Vishalji (Bharadwaj) playing harmonium at food festivals in Pragati Maidan and reinventing himself as a director so that he could give himself work as a music composer. Subhash Ghai’s unusual situation when his mother left his father but did not take him with her to her maternal home, choosing instead to leave him with his father because she believed that would make him the man she wanted to become one day.
So, everyone has a story that leads them to their own destination. What’s yours?
Wow! Such a lovely thought! However, I think I would be shy to narrate my own story. Maybe that is why a few directors had refused me. To cut it real short, had I not failed as a businessman, had I not been divorced, I would not have written this book. The simultaneous failure of my business and marriage, and not me, set me on the road to becoming a writer and filmmaker. I was an introvert until then, and was shy of being in a profession where the sun had shone continuously for over 40 years on my father; initially my father had not wanted me to be in films. Thanks to my business and marriage failing, my father supported my decision to take up filmmaking. It is he who introduced me to my first film director as an assistant, Subhash Ghai. One of my gurus he too is.
Do share something that you cherish about your relationship with your famous father.
Because of the partition of the Indian subcontinent, 1947, my father and his family saw nearly two decades of financial hardships. My mother became a tailor to complement her father’s army pension income. When my siblings and I were kids, my parents lived at least 15 years of financial hardships. By the time I was a teen my father was amongst the top lyrics writers. As a youth one day I did not finish my breakfast, leaving an egg omelette midway, with the genuine excuse that I was not hungry anymore. My father told me “Do you know of the cost of this one egg you have left? (I said No) When you four were kids, (me and my 3 siblings) your mother would boil one egg and divide it into four parts so that you four receive nutrition. She did not divide it into five parts to have a slice herself. That, is the cost of an egg. Next time you waste food, think of the price your mother paid for one egg for so many years, only to give you four her share too.” I never waste food thereafter, I think. In fact, that is a reason I am not a ‘foodie’. Such a common word now in times of plenty. This word did not even exist when I was growing up. The fact I have meals to eat and can eat as many as often, is by itself nothing but my good luck and a blessing. So why crave for any more under the guise of being a ‘foodie’.
For me he was just ‘Daddy’. I cannot see him as clearly as you or his fans do as a ‘lyrics writer’. I discovered the lyrics writer in my father post him passing away. The incident I mentioned earlier about the egg would be an inspiring one. The fond one would be : when he returned home late in the night and we were fast asleep, he would quietly enter the room and tap me on my head softly as though he is putting a baby to sleep. If I stirred or woke up he would stop. I think he was shy of showering affection. So, because I did not want him to stop and go away, if I woke up by his gentle tapping my head I pretended to be asleep because I loved him doing that.
Are you writing a sequel to Directors’ Diaries?
I am working on two books: Volume 2 of Directors’ Diaries with another 12 directors.
My other project is a Biography of my father, “Mujhe Bhi Kuch Kehna Hai”. The title of the book is taken from the song that he wrote for Bobby. I have a publisher on board and the same is in its second draft. This will most probably be co written by a female writer from the US.
I took on a co writer for my dad’s bio because I needed to bring in objectivity. Also the biography is a very massive project, for me, because I knew him only as ‘daddy’ until he passed away. I really discovered the lyrics writer he was after he travelled beyond my skies. I am still discovering his his massive body of work.
Good luck Rakesh! We look forward to learning more about Bollywood’s filmmakers and your illustrious father.
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