Now, you can see me

Jasmine Singh

More than 2.5 million views in not even 10 hours of the trailer release, Anushka Sharma and Diljit Dosanjh starrer Phillauri’s first look and song Dum Dum has grabbed attention like nothing before. And guess who is subtly, confidently, excitedly, curiously, smiling over this... of course the actors, the production house, the publicist, but there is one man whose smile has surpassed all others, so much so that you could hear his sigh of relief from a mile (figuratively speaking)!

Delhi lad Anshai Lal, the young director of Phillauri is seeing all his scepticism fade, at least for a while. “As a director my job is to give a good product, something that I have tried to do in Phillauri. I was slightly sceptical about how the subject will be received, but looking at the response to the trailer and the song, I am slightly relieved.”

A ghost bride, an unwilling groom and an old era unfulfilled love, the trailer of the upcoming Bollywood flick Phillauri is a nice mix of quirkiness, romance and drama, all the same though it doesn’t fit into any specified genre. At least Anshai wouldn’t bracket it into one. “It is much more than a ghost story, what you see in the trailer is just a bit of what you will be seeing in the film.”

A course in journalism, an unplanned shift to the city of dreams Mumbai, assisting a well-known director Saket Chaudhary, a chance meeting with yet another famous writer, and coming up with a plot for a film... Anshai has just begun his walk on the not-so-levelled bitumen track, treading with ideas and some out of the box stories. And while he moves on, he keeps his eyes open for anything new, like state-of- the-art technology. “Phillauri can be called as an amalgamation of technology with storytelling. Imagine telling this story a good 10 years back, it just wouldn’t have been possible. Technology has done wonders to storytelling,” adds the director who is all thanks to the entire team of Phillauri including Clean Slate films, Fox Star Studios, his DOP Dinesh for keeping faith in him and help him put the film together. 

 As he rolls on this interesting joyride called Phillauri, we drop in names that mean the most to the film — popular Punjabi singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh and always-picking-just-the-right roles, Anushka Sharma. “I am a great fan of Diljit’s songs; I was very excited and looking forward to telling him the story of Phillauri, which of course he liked. Diljit is blessed with a good wit, he speaks less, but he’s very naughty. It was a delight working with him.” As for Anushka, “Well, the character was written keeping her in mind,” shares Anshai. 

Coming back to our Punjabi star, how did the director manage Diljit’s Punjabi accent, was it tweaked or left as it is? “Diljit Dosanjh speaks perfect Hindi, and perfectly perfect colloquial Punjabi, these two things actually worked in his favour.” A good part of Phillauri has been shot in Punjab, without any hitch! “Absolutely, it is when you come to Punjab, one realises that the people are so kind and warm. I had no problem shooting here. Even though I already knew how popular Diljit Dosanjh was, when I shot here I realised he is a rage in Punjab,” shares the director who is just days away from seeing how the audiences will be reacting to lovely bhoot- unfilled-desire love story!

jasmine@tribunemail.com