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Sanjay Gupta tries his hand at short stories
By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service 

Mumbai, June 23 (IANS) Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta Gupta has launched his first feature film collection of short stories entitled "Dus Kahaniyan", none of which will be longer than 10 minutes.  

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Gupta, who will direct one of the stories and also produce the film, has roped in some of the biggest names in Bollywood to act in it. 

The actors' list includes Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Viveik Oberoi, Nana Patekar, Aftab Shivdasani, Arbaaz Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Rohit Roy...More confirmations are on the way.

Among the actresses, Bipasha Basu, Tanushree Dutta, Esha Deol, Mandira Bedi and Yana Gupta have been confirmed. But more names are likely to join the list.

And among the 10 directors are Gupta, Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Apoorva Lakhia - who wants to make his short story with Abhishek Bachchan but the actor is yet to confirm - Meghna Gulzar and Jasmeet Dodhi. 

Vishal Bhardwaj is also interested in directing a short film for Gupta.

The writers include Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Kamlesh Pandey, Bhardwaj, Suresh Nair and Gupta. But the list is still far from complete.

Talking about his project, Gupta told IANS: "Each film, for example, one featuring Nana Patekar called 'Gubbare', or the one entitled 'Zanzi' featuring Viveik and Tanushree, will be done with elaborate brochure and posters. Every short story will have the best technicians and talent."

Filming for the first short story started May 9. The 10 stories will be first released as one feature film called "Dus Kahaniya". They will then proceed to the Internet. Then finally in January 2007, the stories will be available for downloading on cell phones when the 4G technique comes into the country.

"I know the concept of 10 stories in one package sounds strange...just as the one-day international match would have been ludicrous in the 1960s and 70s. We are serving up a 'thali' as one meal," said Gupta.

What about the failure of Ram Gopal Varma's segmented films "Darna Mana Hai" and "Darna Zaroori Hai"? 

"That's entirely due to the way he marketed his films. Those stories were all interconnected. The stories of our 'Dus Kahaniyan' aren't linked together. Viewers won't get bored because the stories aren't in any way similar." 

How did he manage to convince all the actors to do 10-minute films? 

"That's the beauty of this endeavour. Every actor and actress jumped at the idea. They see this as truly the first short film venture in Bollywood. 

"Ramu's 'Darna...' series was one big feature. Mani Ratnam's 'Yuva' had three interconnected stories. Naseeruddin Shah's first directorial venture has four stories and Nikhil Advani's 'Salaam-e-Ishq' has a number of love stories that come together. My stories in 'Dus Kahaniyan' are truly autonomous. And no, I wasn't inspired by 'Crash'."

And what about Gupta's tie-up with Ekta Kapoor for "Shootout At Lokhandwala"? 

"We are like chalk and cheese. It is a strategic alliance that got worked out in two meetings. In the first meeting we knew we had a common vision. Neither Ekta nor I am in this for money.

"We are looking at films we both would be proud of. The minute Ekta heard the concept for 'Shootout At Lokhandwala', which is a highly unconventional film, she jumped at it. She'll also be part of 'Dus Kahaniyan' and my directorial venture 'Alibaug'. 

"Basically, we have worked out the modalities whereby Ekta's Balaji Talefilms will extend its financial and marketing support to our company White Feather. With Sanju (Dutt) coming on officially as the chairperson of our company we are looking at a new level of existence."

But this alliance with Ekta isn't applicable to every film that Gupta's company will make. Gupta is negotiating with other big production houses for alliances. 

"What a high! I feel so stupid about the work that I have done so far."