Bollywood filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia started his career in the Hindi film industry as Shekhar Kapur’s assistant director. The latter gained prominence in the entertainment industry with movies like Masoom (1983), Mr India (1987), and Bandit Queen (1994). However he became infamous for abandoning his Hindi films, which were already in the works, for an opportunity to work in Hollywood with Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger.
During an interview with the news agency ANI, shedding light on the same Dhulia shared that Kapur had started and stopped many films when he was in India for 1-2 years after the release of Bandit Queen, before going to Hollywood. One of the movies was titled Maut Se Jo Darte Nahi co-starring Shah Rukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, and Suniel Shetty. “He’d made a film Joshilaay (1989), which he abandoned after completing 80% of filming. It was the first film shot in Ladakh. It had action like a Western. Shekhar ji wanted to make an action adventure film like that,” Indian Express quoted the 57-year-old filmmaker.
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In the same interview, he went on to recall the time he had made terrible tea for Shah Rukh Khan, when the actor had visited Shekhar’s Mumbai residence. He said, “Shekhar ji ne kaha, ‘Chai bana de yar.’ Pehli bar maine microwave dekha hota kya hai. Main aapko ’94 ki baat bata raha hu. Phir bhi bahut hi ghatiya si chai maine Shah Rukh ko pilayi thi.”
After Maut Se Jo Darte Nahi got shelved, Kapur started working on another film titled Major Saab starring Jackie Shroff and Juhi Chawla. While Anu Malik had even recorded the music for the film, it was shelved. He then started working on Ta Ra Rum Pum, for which Tigmanshu and other assistant directors had auditioned Preity Zinta, who was yet to make her Bollywood debut. The film was supposed to be an AR Rahman musical, on the lines of John Travolta-starrer Grease (1978), however, the production of the film was also stopped as Kapur decided to go to Hollywood.
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There he was presented with the opportunity to work with Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1997) and late actor Heath Ledger for The Four Feathers (2002), in their early days. Dhulia revealed that since Kapur was getting an opportunity to make films outside India, after the global acclaim of Bandit Queen, he wanted to “utilize” it as it “won’t happen with a Hindi film.”
Tigmanshu Dhulia extended his support to Shekhar Kapur for his previous decisions and clarified that he is still proud of getting the chance to work alongside the latter as his assistant director. Indian Express quoted him saying, “Assistant ke liye thodi ek director zindagi jeeta hai. Apne liye jeeta hai. I don’t have any regrets. I admire Shekhar Kapur a lot. I’ve learnt a lot from him. The amount of time I’ve spent with him is more than enough, whether the film gets made or not. I was a very proud Assistant Director. I still say it with pride today that I was Shekhar Kapur’s Assistant Director.”
