A school of blockbusters

Acting, glamour and a good script are the right ingredients for any blockbuster movie and one man knows it better than anyone else. The ‘showman’ of Hindi cinema, Subhash Ghai, says it all with his cinematic intellect.A producer, director and screen writer, his magnanimous career has seen him grow with Bollywood for the last three decades.“A movie is as good as a bride. It should be engaging, ornamental, beautiful and with a soul of itself. The script is the hero and everything else revolves around it,” says the 66-year-old filmmaker who was recently in Dubai to interact with students at the University of Wollongong in Dubai.Sharing insights into his life and films, he says: “I enjoy making good films but it’s the audience who decides what a blockbuster is and what would be a flop. People need to develop a taste of cinema and the young generation should be given a chance to know good aesthetics.”Winning a national award for the movie Karma in 1986, Subhash Ghai’s career hit a high note in the nineties as he made blockbuster movies like Karma (1986), Ram Lakhan (1989), Saudagar (1991), Khalnayak (1993), Pardes (1997) and Taal (1999). Ghai decided to take a break from his filmmaking career in 2000 as he travelled the world to see the best filmmaking schools. Returning to Mumbai after a few years, Ghai set up the Whistling Woods International Institute for film, media and entertainment studies. “This is my platform for people who do not have relatives in the film industry. I wanted talent from all over the world to come together and form a creative synergy,” says Ghai who associates himself with the struggling artists.Hundreds of thousands of young artists call on the city of Mumbai to live their dream as actors, singers, dancers and performers. At the heart of India’s film industry, film-studios are in big business.For the talent knocking on the doors of producers and directors, the film school offers a peak into the glamour behind Bollywood movies.“You have to unlearn to learn anything and I always teach my students to forget and start afresh. This film school is my biggest achievement and I am happy to see it grow,” adds Ghai. Today, the film school with 500 students is ranked among the top 10 film schools of the world and students from across the world are coming to India to learn from Bollywood’s finest minds. The filmmaker plans to open three new film schools in Haryana, Hyderabad and Kolkata over the next five years.“Dubai has a lot of potential filmmakers and we have a plan to come here but it’s still in its early stages,” says Ghai. Talking passionately about films and script writing, Ghai blamed the ‘MTV culture’ for poor filmmaking in recent days. “MTV culture has entered our style of cinema and there is restless editing. I believe movies have to be paced well and people need to feel the story. It is the people who are at the core of every movie and a filmmaker needs to connect with his audience,” says Ghai. He adds: “Bollywood has always been cosmetic but there are some good films every year. The commercial aspect of filmmaking has brought item numbers, pacey music and an element of glamour.” Ghai plans to return to the silver screen next year with a new movie starring Salman Khan.“It is going to have all the elements of a blockbuster movie and I hope the audience will like it,” smiles Ghai.