Question of my Rutba
Hello, hello, am returning to Passion for Cinema, with the hope of keeping my voice intact. Was working for website aslibaat.com. It was fun doing it but like all good things my role in it had to end.
On the other hand, my film project Rutba has not ended, and never will. If I am writing this it is mainly to exhort filmmakers never to give up, never mind the odds. At this very moment, I am disheartened that the film cannot start rightaway because of differences with its producer. Still as they say never say die.
Rutba is a film about my stepbrother Hukam Singh who was killed in mysterious circumstances over a decade ago. That is one tragedy that I have had to accept helplessly, and to be frank I have always felt like a coward that I could do nothing to get justice for my brother. I am not a hero, can never be.
The script seeks to investigate what happened one night in Jodhpur. It has been written like a fiction thriller whodunit, punctuated by real-life emotional drama. It is the investigation by a brother – someone like me – into the reasons for his stepbrother’s death.
Here’s one script that ripped my insides because I had to reawaken countless dormant feelings within me. I have written it in a format that can connect to the viewers, single screen, multiplex, whatever. It would be great if I could make this film, if not, it could be transcribed into a novel. Hukam Singh’s story is one of a kind. He was a
wonderful, extroverted, larger-than-life figure who was perhaps too loving and honest for this world to contain. I did not know him sufficiently, he lived in Jodhpur, I in Mumbai, by the time we were just about making a bond, he went.
This story I had, in fact, started writing into a script with Ramesh Sippy whom I thought I could learn more about the art, after having been educated in the technique by Shyam Benegal. Ramesh Sippy was generous enough to spare hours and hours at his office in Khar, on the script. Then it started becoming so grand in scale that we would have needed a limitless budget to make it. Rameshji saw it as an Indian Last Emperor. I so wanted him to direct it.
Rameshji had other films and TV projects to attend to. We took a break. After a longish spell Rameshji asked if we should go at the scipt again. I was so enmeshed in my daily job at The Times of India that I said I would call him in a few days..but did not. Again, I had done Hukam Singh injustice.
In the course of discussing book projects with Penguin editors in Delhi, I had brought up the story of Hukam Singh, they were all for it, and had even settled on a title – The Imperfect Prince. As it turned out, I found novel writing – non-fiction at the core but fiction otherwise – was far more daunting than making a film. It needed consistent thought, application, deep research.. and the ability to come to terms with isolation while writing it.Again, I kept my brother on the shelf.
Towards the end of last year, there came an opportunity to finally narrate the Hukam Singh story as a film. The script was demanding, many of its scenes like confessionals to a church father. I was satisfied with the result, my producer Vikram Bhatt wasn’t. He rightly pointed out that it was far too internalised. I agreed. After four more drafts, both he and I were gung-ho. We had done it.
Then it came to the casting, the music, the basic essentials. That was on. Then there were snafus which are often inevitable in the process of filmmaking. Rutba was ‘routed’ as Mid-day put it, the intro said that the film had been shelved.
No, no, no. Journalism uses instant deductive logic. Often things don’t work out with original producers. Still, I’m not going out there with a lantern to look for a new producer immediately. I will let myself breathe, I will let Hukam Singh breathe.
And if someone believes that my project is commercially viable and that it has some value, it will be made. I will store that wish on a shelf of the mind, and move back to passion for cinema. To the site and to what the three words mean.
Tags: Media, Rutba
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Welcome back Khalid saab.This post was certainly honest and I do admire your doggedness to maintain the pursuit of making Rutba.Hope you do get to make this soon & hope all budding filmmakers get to realise something from this.Would be great to see you write more often now over here.
I felt you came again “simply” to promote yourself ! I might be wrong !!
Thanks sethumadhavan for understanding the piece.
Yaatri, promote myself..how? By writing about my effort to make a story into a film, a story that is real and vital for me. Sorry u think that way..
@Yatri
i agree with you!!
I thought you were writing reviews and “Asli Honey” column for aslibaat.com… How come it suddenly ended???… Tend to agree with Yatri & Govind…. Seems you dont have any outlet left…
Rutba sounds very intriguing and I liked the book title – The Imperfect Prince. Can’t the project be turned into a low budget indie?
Khalid Ji,
It is sad that project is halted at least for a time being. It looks promising.
Rutba covers the account (Fictional?) only of the last 24 hours of the Late Hukum Singh?
If it covers beyond “what and how it had happened” then threads would go back to his and other character’s lives.
Jodhpur Royal family had objected a portion included in the autobiography of Ismail Merchant (based on his stay at the palace of Jodhpur and where he desribes the erratic behaviour of Hukum Singh). They had threatened to sue him and the publisher.
Please excuse such a personal querry, but Considering many stories existing about your step brother Rao Hukum Singh, is it possible for you to create his character in an objective manner?
And if you opt an objective approach, would royal family support it? or considering the risk that it may affect your ties with the family, would you be able to explore the subject deeply and in a fair manner?
If objectivity can be maintained then this is sad that your idea to write a book could not be materialized.
There is not much literature available on the lives of former kings, princes and princesses and life in these former princely states.
You are in an interesting position as your life shares something with a royal family but you dont represent them directly.
When books are written on the request and with the approval of royal families then mostly books present biased accounts.
Or we get books like written by Diwan Jarmani Dass stressing more upon the idea of exposing sexual and luxurious and corrupt lives of kings and queens.
Rarely a book like Mulkraj Anand’s novel A story of an Indian Prince comes where author goes deeply into the psychology of the Princely characters.
Events happened in royal families are always covered with the heavy layers of mysteries. People would hardly get to know the truthful account of what had happened with the King of Nepal and his family members.
Hope you get a production house which can support your project. Foreign production houses may be more helpful with such a subject.
If the story is really great, johar’s Dharma or SRK’s red chillis can produce it for you… aren’t they good friends with you? why not try with them
Going small budget is the only way out. It’s almost like proving your self all over AGAIN !!
I did’t like your Fiza ( I watched it in upper calss-ticket purchased in black, just to catch that movie on the very first day) and then never had courage to catch any other movie of yours.
All the best.
plz THIS HAS TO B MADE……IT WILL BE WORTH WATCHING …….
Khalid at least now make a better movie, than ur last 3 Duds.
This has nothing to do with KM. I hardly know much about him… but, Ratnakar, would you say the exact same sentence if you were face to face with the man? Or would you couch it and finesse it and deliver the message a bit more gently?
I’m not saying one shouldn’t say what they think. But there are ways and ways of delivering a message. It is amazing how the fact we sit behind keyboards and glowing monitors reduces our humanity. Easy to forget there is a human being on the other end (whoever it may be).
@ Shripriya
I guess same can be applied to KM when he says stuff (absolute crap) about much more respectable and talented people.
B, read the caveat up front on the original comment. It’s not about KM. But according to your logic… do we descend to a level we look down on?
This has nothing to do with PFC or KM or any commenter… it’s just something I’ve felt for a while and I see more and more.
Why don’t you make the movie you like rather than sermonising someone else. At least Khalid has credits like Mammo, Sardari Begum and Zubeida. U just take a look at your own duds …
Welcome back at PFC Khalid ji… It seems all of sudden you are back to promote ur film and to tell about journey of making Rutba and hurdles associated with it…even if you are doing this then there is nothing wrong in it… afterall PFC has provided a platform to discuss everything related to films and all these thing we want to know… and you are not the only one here at PFC who are doing this… before you many other guys have used PFC to discuss and promote thier films and if anyone wants to bash someone who is promoting or discussing thier films then bash everybody doing this… why only Khalid Mohamad…?
Please spare us the torture, Khalid,it may be question of your Rutba, but not ours.
Didnt know comments are deleted from here. I wrote a nasty one about getting Khalid out from PFC. That was removed.
Arrey this guy minds a lot and takes it out in his reviews. John didnt agree for his movie, so he blasted him for his role in another movie. There’s some panga going on with AB. So he actually recommended AB to FTII pune for his role in Bhootnath. Imagine asking Amitabh bachchan to go for an acting class.
As per media reports, panga with AB happend because AB refused to do his movie (probably Rutba) and also because he was not invited for ABHI-ASH wedding…
@Vinay,
Haha, how could i forgot about Bhootnath comments.
Was Hukam Singhji also known as Titu Banna?
Nikhil,
Yes Tutu Banna.
The whole premise of Rutba does not sound new.
It could be given a sick twist like
a director ( a self proclaimed cross between David Lynch and Lars von trier) makes a movie about his stepbrother’s mysterious death.
At the very end of the movie it turns out that the director himself killed his stepbrother.
And oh, in between you can throw a weighty item from Sush and Jaya Bhaduri’s “Hrishi-Da-save-Me-from-this-morons” kind of bored cameo.
whatchusay?
Why don’t u ask Anurag kashyap to direct? He can find a way to reduce the budget and make it look like a damn good thriller. Though made on a small scale Gulaal was Powerhouse thriller with drama blended in like hand in glove..I think u write very good stories from fiza to zubeida to that arjun rampal movie..but though end result is great it looks like part of the effect gets diluted in direction…
dont think ak will ever agree
It may just depend upon the script..but who knows..
Dear Khalidji
I am Hitanshu from IIT Kanpur. I am the coordinator of the Films and Photoography Events in Antaragni’09 the annual cultural feestival off IIT Kanpur .
Sorry for contacting you this way but if you could provide us your phone number we could tal to you regarding the festival.My emial id is sethihitanshu[at]gmail.com
I am shocked at the malice and cruelty evident in these comments.
Khalid has been a respected journalist for years.He wrote the screenplay for three excellent movies and directed ‘Fiza’-a gripping movie. Can any of you claim the same?
Before you jump to conclusions-I am not Mr.Mohammed’s PR agency-just a film buff.
‘Rutba’ is his story-does he not have the right to tell it?
Its easy to mock- its difficult to do!!
LMAO – “I am shocked at the malice and cruelty evident in these comments.”
Have you read his movie reviews and articles about people in the film industry? He doles out malice and cruelty on a regular basis and yet you think he should be exempt from such comments from people here.
I see it more as fair play.
@jayashree,
The man who can send Amitabh Bacchan back to acting school desreves all that ‘malice’.
True, an eye for an eye will leave the entire nation blind but if it is Mr. Mohammed’s eye, you don’t need to worry coz he never had one in the first place, blinded by ignorant vanity.
Labor Day Sale is undoubtedly the most irritating commentor on PFC.
His comments here and on other threads are so stupid , I wonder what he thinks of himself!!!! Frankly, such people have no right to comment on other people. And yes, I am not supporting Khalid, I am only picking on people like labor day who are such idiots, yet they make vitriolic comments on other celebrities.
“It could be given a sick twist like a director ( a self proclaimed cross between David Lynch and Lars von trier) makes a movie about his stepbrother’s mysterious death. At the very end of the movie it turns out that the director himself killed his stepbrother. And oh, in between you can throw a weighty item from Sush and Jaya Bhaduri’s “Hrishi-Da-save-Me-from-this-morons” kind of bored cameo. whatchusay? ”
This is just an example of Mr. Labor’s intelligence!!!!!!Even an inmate of a lunatic asylum can make saner comments!!! Grow up from your know-it-all pseudo-intellectualism, Mr. Labor day Something.
Hi Sri,
Generally I don’t retort back as I like to respect each individual’s words whether coming as guns or as roses. But I have one small objection with this adjective “know-it-all pseudo-intellectualism” word.
let’s say what do u call intellectuality? Is it my fault that I try to watch works of some of directors(And realize in my entire lifetime how ignorant I would remain to that beautiful fraud called Cinema) when you don’t? I don’t have any aspiration to create or be a part of creating a movie but I have all that academic ‘passion for cinema’ which makes me run every night from David Cronenberg to P.T. Anderson; From Satyajit Ray to Rituparno Gosh or From Passolini to Tarshem Singh.
And when I comment, a lot of these movies jumble in my mind as well as their directors. Don’t you think it is a natural process?
Talking of the above mentioned comment , I did not mean to say that Khalid is a self-proclaimed cross between Lynch and Trier but for making a visually striking ‘violent’ thriller when I look towards my little knowledge of world cinema a few names pop up and don’t you agree giving correct reference to what kinda movie I am thinking of is better than writing blatantly?
Obviously, I can not give reference to Gaspar Noe (See, I can’t help; it is as natural as giving reference of Levi’s trouser while trying a new Wrangler) while talking about say, DDLJ.
So, let me know if I was bound to ( with due respect) David Dhawan or Karan Johar for my entire life and would write a line like ‘a director having similarities like K-Jo’, would you label me as ‘non’ intellectual and because, I can talk of different facets of world cinema and neither try to hide nor drumroll them you have the right to call me with that adjective.
And by the way, like anyone in PFC has right to diss someone who he does not like (celebrity or not), my whole comment was done with that ’sick’ joking ‘attitude’ that gave birth to movies like Shaun of Dead or Zombieland. If you failed to get the joke, I am sorry to say, the joke’s on you.
Regards,
Please spare us the horror of another of your badly directed film. you are a good script-writer, not a director.
I like the sound of the project…you have knack of understanding the deserts and the fortresses. good luck, for whenever it sees the light of the day.
No offense Khalid, you are a wonderful writer but a terrible director. So get someone else to direct Hukum for you. I am sure it will turn out wonderful.
my two cents
i havent seen all of khalid mohammeds films so i cant comment much..although i saw fiza when i was around 14 and i really liked it for some strange reason…
i would love to know why exactly the people of pfc hate this guy so much ? then again i dont mind negative opinion and criticism but all i see here is hate…
i think promotion is ok its what everyone does or needs to do for theyre cinema… but yes it does suck when the people who promote pretend that theyre not promoting
i enjoyed reading this article and i will definetely give the film a watch …looking forward to hearing more about this film
the readers of pfc remind me a LOT of the mob in julius kashyap..sorry caesar* =)