Director Prashanth Neel who is behind the world of 'KGF' opened up on how 'Sholay' and actor Amitabh Bachchan played a major influencing role behind the film.
We cannot deny that a lot of things in ‘KGF’ take us back to the Bollywood from 1970s. Actors Yash’s on-screen visuals also bare a resemblance to legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan’s young day, as per Etimes. Director Prashanth Neel was recently asked about his influence behind making the ‘KGF’ series and he talked about how ‘Sholay’ and Bachchan had changed his perception of cinema.
In a recent conversation, the director said, “The 70s, basically one man Amitabh Bachchan, shaped the way I thought about cinema. One thing that the 70s did and what Sholay did was to tell the Indian audience that you can make a Hollywood movie in India with Indian emotions. That got stuck with me for a very long time. I didn’t think I would make KGF this early in my career… but that is something that stayed with me that you can tell a larger-than-life story but what is common is human emotions.”
As the conversation proceeded, Neel went on to talk about his first meeting with ‘Sholay’ director Ramesh Sippy, “Three years back, I saw somebody at the hotel I was staying. I was checking in. I saw him. I dropped my bag and I ran and I said, ‘I want to take a picture with you.’ And everybody around me was thinking, ‘Who is this man?’ I took that selfie and my hands were shivering. It was with Ramesh Sippy. That is the only selfie I have taken in my life.”
‘KGF: Chapter 1’ was released in 2018 and it was Neel’s second feature film. He collaborated with actor Yash for the first time and both confessed that destiny had a role to play in the collaboration. The director had originally conceived the film in 2006 and signed Yash after watching him in ‘Googly’. As for Yash, he said that he was simply impressed by Neel’s first release ‘Ugramm’.
Neel said that ‘KGF’ was not supposed to be made in two parts. However, certain budget constraints forced them to stop filming for almost two months, during which he and his team wrote a new screenplay and thought of dividing it into two parts.
The director concluded by saying, “I tried to explain them that we should split the film into two. The discussion was that the second half is the best part of the movie. So, how to make the first half into an entire movie? We brainstormed for a month and a half. We stopped the filming. In that time, we came up with the screenplay and took the plunge.”
‘KGF: Chapter 2’ is set to hit the cinemas on April 14. Prashanth Neel will then focus on Prabhas starrer ‘Salaar’ which is to be released in 2023.