E Nivas: from the new Class of Bollywood Directors

By Fuad Omar.

E Nivas is a director who hails from Ram Gopal Verma's illustrious camp. He made his debut film Shool with Manoj Bajpai and Raveena Tandon, extracting performances par excellence from two seasoned artistes in a gritty film that many felt was too dark but broke new ground for Indian cinema in reality and direction. His second film Love Ke Liye Kuch bhi Karega had the audience rolling in the aisles and gained cult status on DVD as the comedy that created Aslam Bhai and made Aftab into a tapori.

When I meet the young director I don't even recognise him. It's hard to believe such a young man has achieved so much in such a short span of time, and he's still ticking. Talking to him is like taking steps closer to a time bomb: you get a rush with each question you ask and you know he's going to explode because you can't hold such volatile talent back. Read on and learn about one of the makers of tomorrow who's already ruling today.
"From the beginning I hated studying," he tells me sitting with a coffee and a smile. "I always used to bunk school and go watch films. I was in a small town and movies were an escape for me. When I used to get money for my school fees I never used to pay it, instead I would take that money and buy tickets for films on black!"

Is that when he realised his calling was in films, or did he eventually save enough school funds to make his big screen debut, I ask and he smiles again shaking his head.
"I just knew I wanted to be in films, although I wasn't sure in which craft or section, or what direction was or cinematography. I just knew I wanted to do film, even though I had little knowledge of the field. All I knew was I loved films and wanted to be a part of them however it was."

Sporting a designer moustache and beard, E Nivas reminds me of the gangster that looms down from the hoardings of the forthcoming film Company, which reminds me again of his camp, and so I ask how it all began and his association with Ram Gopal Verma, the genius behind such films as Rangeela and Satya.
"One day I met Ramuji and told him 'I want to join you'. 'As what?' he asked and I told him 'I don't know, all I know is I want to be with you when you' re making films'. I used to see him on the sets when he was directing and saw Assistant Directors who were right next to Ramuji and doing a lot of things and seemed to carry a lot of weight, so I thought that looks good and said I want to be like them. I didn't know what they did or what their job was, I just wanted to be doing what they were," he says laughing. "Ramuji asked if I knew any fundamentals of the craft and I told him I knew nothing and wanted to learn everything from scratch, and asked him to give me a chance and he liked that. He asked me a few more things like my background and education level and then he asked me to join him."

Having assisted one of India's technically most  brilliant directors must have made an impression. What films did he get to work on and to what extent is my next question, as it's now my turn to sip on the finely brewed coffee.
"Raat, Drohi, Rangeela, Dharavi and some of Satya. But after Rangeela I had learnt a lot. I was very focussed and wanted to prove myself to him. I knew that after Ramuji there were seven people who were doing what I was so I didn't get a chance to talk to him or to prove myself. There were seven people taking care of everything and after them was me and I had to make something of myself. After Rangeela he asked me what I had learnt from assisting on so many films and I told him what I had observed and he liked what I had absorbed from the sets. Ramuji was then shooting a South Indian film and he gave me a second unit direction opportunity saying you can direct these three or four days and this sequence, and he told me I'd start tomorrow which would be my first shoot. I was shocked and thought how can I do this! I told him I wasn't sure and he reassured me saying 'You have a go and do it, if it doesn't turn out well we'll re-shoot it but I'm giving you this chance, go for it. This is what you wanted, now do it.' Ramuji had to go to Bombay for something and didn't want to break the schedule and so told me to shoot it. He told all the producers and everyone on the sets to co-operate with me but he also told them not to support me or give me any help, but to let me do this on my own. I was really scared and didn't sleep at all that night thinking about the next day's shoot, and when I got to the shoot it was raining and I was hoping that would stop the shoot! I was very scared because to handle a unit of 200-250 people is not an easy task. The rain stopped and we shot, then I went to Bombay, edited what I had done and showed it to him and he loved it. He said "Even if I had shot I wouldn't have been able to shoot it like this," and really encouraged me. He asked me when I wanted to become a director and I told him there were two things I always wanted to happen: Firstly I wanted to direct my first film in the South and secondly I always wanted my first film to be a romantic film. Both of these fell flat and didn't happen! But it's still a wish I have and will still happen."

At this point I almost drop the coffee. He's just narrated how Ram Gopal Verma took a new kid and gave him the chance of a lifetime. His judgement paid off as he had scouted one of India's best. He goes on to tell me about how he bagged his first controversial film, Shool.
"Hindi is not my first language and I can understand it but not communicate in it so well so I wasn't too keen to do Hindi cinema to start with. Ramuji then narrated an idea to me and asked my opinion. I liked it and he said 'Why don't you direct it?' I was hesitant because I still wanted to wait another year or two years for more experience because I was still very young, I was 21 at the time. The next day he called me up and said 'Listen this is my risk, I'm the one putting 3-4 crores on the film, what have you got to lose? I believe in you and have faith that you can do this, the only place we differ is our imagination because no two people can think the same. If you imagine a sequence one way, I'll probably envision it in another because we're both directors. So I'm giving you this project and it'll be your vision and I won't even come on the sets'. So I agreed to make Shool, the unit went to Bihar and shot there for 20 days because it was a very natural location and that realistic feel I inherited from Ramuji's style."

One of the notable factors of Shool is the uneasiness it fires at the audience. The village it's set in is far from perfect and corruption is rife. But unlike a bad 80s Hindi film, Shool is very mature in its treatment of the story and delivers a frighteningly realistic portrayal of an honest cop who puts his integrity and moral values before anything else, and loses everything in the bargain.
"The backdrop is such that it invokes fear," he says agreeingly. "You see Bihar and you'll get scared. the kind of violence that exists there and are written about in the papers is more than what's there in the film, in Shool you only see 5 percent of the violent side of Bihar. And the film is not about Bihar, it's just a backdrop so the audience can relate to the kind of people these characters are and to fear them. The ambience really worked for the film and it brought across some of the actual fear that exists in Bihar and the violence that is there."

A new director handling a subject that doesn't really have a happy ending is a risk in itself, but then to ask him to take on the mammoth task of directing a stalwart of an actor like Manoj Bajpai and de-glamorise an actress like Raveena Tandon is a brave move by any means.
"Working with Manoj Bajpai is a dream for a director," says E Nivas with a smile. "He works on his character graph, he gives his all and all I had to do was shoot. It all helped because it was a difficult first project in that firstly I'm shooting in Bihar, then it's a very intense script, thirdly it has a lot of realistic emotions and fourthly it's a very risky subject."

From the boy who skipped school assemblies to going on stage in front of the nation to accept a National Award, his parents must be proud, I say. He gives me a look that says 'you have no idea' and tells me:
"My parents always wanted me to pursue an academic career and never wanted me to get into films. Then Shool happened and my hoardings were up and my name came in the news and all the papers and that made my father proud that his son has achieved something and has made his name and mark on the profession he has chosen. The best moment was also when I got the National Award for the film."

From a gritty realistic portrayal of corruption and how life doesn't always have happy endings to one of the biggest comedies of the year, how did his second film happen?
"After Shool I wanted to do something that is a total contrast and wasn't as intense. I had two subjects, one was Jaane Kab Kaise Kahan and the other was this one then called Jackpot that became Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega (LKLKBK). Ramuji loved this film idea and the casting was a huge thing to have Aftab, Fardeen and two girls and there was a lot of scope to play on the subject, with a lot of situational humour and not slapstick humour. The characters are not trying to be funny, but come across as humorous because of the situations they are put in, so it became the second film and next challenge."

Wanting to dwell more on the film, but unable to hold back from mentioning the film I first caught a glimpse of Mr Nivas on, I rush straight to asking him about Dum which stars Vivek Oberoi and Diya Mirza. I caught a day's shooting and can't wait to ask him about the project.
"Dum is a story of a man who wants to be a cop, whose parents want him to become a cop and his childhood dream is to be a cop. Even before he's selected for the force his whole attitude to society and people is that of a cop, so that's the extent to his drive. There's a romantic angle and unknowingly when this man gets all he wishes for there's a clash between him and corruption that changes his whole life, and that's the crux of where the story really begins. That's all I want to say about it for now." "Vivek Oberoi is excellent. He is on screen how he is in day-to-day life and I'm portraying him like that. Diya is hardworking and doing a good job and is learning with every film. She now knows her strengths and weaknesses and is working with them."
"After that I finally get to do my romantic film, Jaane Kab Kaise Kahan which deals with relationships on every level and is about values."

As I eye the time and have a plane to catch I ask him something we were discussing the day before, mentioning how with Lagaan, Asoka and K3G carrying the torches internationally how does he see Indian cinema moving forward. Not necessarily with relation to these three movies but in general given the new directors and new blood that is being injected into the industry.
"Indian cinema is approaching an exciting phase where different things are being tried. There's a lot of new blood and whereas there may not be as much variety in scripts but the way the story is told and the approach is very different, so it's a good time when change is happening."

A good journalist always knows his job and how it works. You know there are no new stories, only new angles and understanding that is a key to turning around a great article. Similarly E Nivas has drawn the parallel in his field and found the key to success in his arena: there are few new stories, but it's how you tell your story that can make a film. The change he talks about is happening, only he doesn't realise he's one of those exciting new filmmakers who is pushing the envelope and boundaries of Indian cinema. He's a National Award winner with his first film and has given a gritty, realistic film that cracked ribs then followed it by a rib-tickling comedy. E Nivas is director who's like a rollercoaster ride. You never know when he' ll deliver the next rush of adrenaline, all you know is it's coming when you least expect it.

You can buy E.Nivas' Shool and Love ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega on DVD from Asiangigs.com.