For 'Bumboo' director, stars don't matter

New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) His debut directorial "Bumboo" is the remake of French hit "L'Emmerduer", yet it is sans big Bollywood stars. Budget constraints notwithstanding, Jagdish Rajpurohit says he would have made it with the same cast even if he had much more money because stars don't guarantee returns.

"I have a great cast - Sharat Saxena, Sanjay Mishra, Sudhir Pandey...all of them may not be a part of the so-called list of commercial stars, but they are all popular and have done some wonderful work in their career," Rajpurohit told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

A veteran theatre actor himself, Rajpurohit says he has acted in the film to cut down on the cost of the small budget film. "Otherwise, if I was to be given the same script to be made with a lot more money, I would have made 'Bumboo' with the same bunch of actors. They are spontaneous and wonderful. And stars don't matter these days," he said.

The story of "Bumboo" revolves around a bumbling professional hitman, a stock market scamster, a press photographer, cops, a psychiatrist, a bell boy, a failed suicide attempt and a chain of hilarious events that go out-of-control when one mistake leads to another and best laid plans go awry.

Rajpurohit first saw "L'Emmerduer", written by Francis Veber, on a flight from Mumbai to Paris. He was intrigued, and wished to adapt it for the Indian market.

He sought the right to remake it, and got French media group TF1 International on board as the film's associate producers.

He sat down with Kavin Dave and tweaked the script to appeal to Indian sentiments.

"French cinema is very subtle, very classical. When I saw 'L'Emmerduer', it seemed very different from what I had seen of their films. The story plot was hilarious, and I felt the story must come to India. So, the story remains the same. But we have not literally translated the dialogues...we have used our 'desi bhaasha' to make situations more hilarious."

"Also, despite being a different French film, there were parts that we couldn't have used for Indian audiences, because the audience would not have appreciated them. So, we have slashed out those situations to suit our cinematic grammar, added music as per tradition...but it is an adaptation in true sense," said Rajpurohit.

"Bumboo" will release March 30. Click the Movie button below for more info:
Bumboo