Page Three capers

Into his third major film this year, after the successful Chandni Bar and Satta, Madhur Bhandarkar is ambitious about Page Three, his comment on the party culture of metro India, writes Vimla Patil

MADHUR BHANDARKAR’S two earlier films, Chandni Bar and Satta, were acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. Why did Madhur think about the party and celebrity culture of metro India that is discussed threadbare at almost every social gathering or seminar in India today? "I was a part of this culture after I directed two successful films," he says, "I was invited to Page Three parties very often. I began to observe the behaviour of people who came to them. There were rich socialites, film and television actors, industrialists, models, successful people from different fields, heads of NGOs and, of course, many PR people. The networking was phenomenal and each invitee had definite reasons for partying. Page Three parties were like a common platform where everyone came searching for what they wanted and worked to get what they were looking for.

"I also met journalists who came to cover such parties for their publications or TV channels and studied their predicament. They got sucked into the celebrity party culture and ran around with their dictaphones and cameras to get sound-bytes, quotes or photo ops as if there was no tomorrow. The ‘attack’ of media persons on a star or model was a sight.

"I thought a film on the subject would be a good project. I worked on the script and within an year, I made the film. I am not against the much-famed Page Three culture but I certainly have a critical view that comes across in the film. The protagonist, Konkana Sen Sharma, is a reporter at such parties. Others in the film are Dolly Thakore, a publisher; Boman Irani, an editor; Atul Kulkarni, ‘Mr India;’ Bikram Saluja, a film star; Sandhya Mridul, an air hostess and Tara Sharma, a hanger-on. Jai Kalra acts the male model who befriends Konkana to gain publicity and then falls in love with her and the relationship becomes serious. Konkana says she identifies with her role to some extent. "I might make decisions in real life which are similar to those my character makes in the film. But on the whole, I am different from the character I play," she says.

According to Madhur, "The film presents their behaviour, personalities, hectic networking and the turns and twists in their relationships."

Though the film is entirely fictional, Konkana does represent my viewpoint to some extent. The film represents the personal journey of a journalist in such a society and her search for self. And the journey is empty at the end of the day and does not give the necessary sense of purpose or fulfilment to a journalist."

Madhur’s critique causes no concern to party regulars and wannabe celebrities. In a recent quote, Nikita Anand, the new Miss India entrant to Bollywood says, "It’s very fashionable to criticise the Page Three gang when everyone wants to part of it. I am becoming a Page Three person. That’s fun!"

Last year, when Madhur was working hard to complete Page Three, he appeared on ‘Page Three’ of most newspapers and on TV networks often. The reason for his unprecedented print and television media-blitz was not his forthcoming film, but his alleged rape of wannabe actress Preeti Jain. Preeti’s case, filed in a Mumbai court, created a media storm. Now it transpires that a filmmaker, Shivram Yadav, is making a film on this sordid case with new star Kanishka as the heroine and Sameer Dharmadhikari, who played the hero in Madhur’s earlier film Satta, is the hero. While, Madhur has gone on record that he has nothing to say about this development, Preeti Jain has threatened the producer with a lawsuit.

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