Before wielding megaphone for "Kites", Basu had carved
a niche for himself with movies like "Murder" (2004),
"Gangster - A Love Story" (2006) and "Life In
A ...Metro" (2007). He worked with Emraan Hashmi and Shiney
Ahuja in them.
"Kites" is Basu's first big starrer and he says Hrithik
has an international appeal.
"Whenever I wrote a story, I didn't know whom I would
cast. This time it didn't happen that way. Rakeshji called me
and asked if I have any story for Hrithik. I didn't have one.
"Then Rakeshji gave me this idea (of 'Kites'). The advantage
this time was that the hero was in my mind. I thought it's a
good opportunity to work with Hrithik who has a big international
appeal."
But Basu says directing a film for Rakesh Roshan put huge pressure
on him.
"There was huge pressure. I was quite tense. When he called
me initially, he said he liked the screenplay of 'Gangster'
and it's a very good story.
"That time I thought he wanted me to write the script
for his film, instead of asking me to direct. It sunk in later
that he wanted me to direct the film as well. Actually, the
trust increases the responsibility."
The international version of the film, edited by Brett Ratner,
is shorter than the Hindi version.
"Whatever the Indian audiences will see, the English-speaking
audiences will experience the same thing. Ideally, I wanted
to have the same length for both the movies. But it's a norm
there to have one-and-a-half-hour movies. Had it been Tom Cruise
or George Clooney, they could have stretched it to two hours.
Barbara and Hrithik are new for them; so it has a one-and-a-half-hour
duration.
"The story is the same and so is the flow; what they have
done is chopped bits and pieces. Like there is no song in the
English version, only some music montage which has cut the film
into that duration."
Basu says Barbara was his first choice for "Kites".
"I had seen Barbara Mori's film 'Inspiration' before,
but I had forgotten her name. When I decided on a Mexican Spanish
actress, first we searched on the net. There I got her name
along with a few others. We wrote all the names that we had
to approach.
"I had her film 'My Brother's Wife' in our library. When
I saw the film, I remembered that I had seen another film, 'Inspiration'.
So she became the first choice."
"I was looking for other Mexican girls as well because
Barbara was far-fetched and I wasn't sure she would agree to
do this film because she had no clue about Bollywood,"
said Basu.
But as Barbara didn't know Hindi or English, it made it easy
for her to portray her character in the film, says Basu.
"The film came out the way it is because she is actually
like that in person. In real life also she can't speak Hindi
or English and the character also can't speak Hindi or English.
So my work became easier. And it became organic and real in
the film," said Basu.