With an array of successful regional films in their stable, Essel Vision Productions Ltd is gearing up to leave a mark in the Hindi motion pictures space as well. Essel Vision, the creative and production studio of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), along with Sanjay Gupta’s White Feather Films and Sachiin Joshi of Viiking Entertainment are going all out to ensure that the approach to film making is professional in all respects! Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s comeback film – Jazbaa – is the first from this association and the film goes on the floor on January 20. Backed with a full-fledged creative and revenue team under the helm of Essel Vision’s Business Head, Akash Chawla, it is already emerging as a noteworthy film company of repute.
Asserting their foray, Essel Vision’s CEO Mr. Nittin Keni said “Jazbaa is an amazing story intertwined with superlative action, drama and mystery. It is the kind of entertaining and meaningful cinema that we want our audience to associate us with. Supported with keen creative & business acumen we are confident that we deliver compelling, profitable entertaining content to global audiences.” Jazbaa is a crime thriller and filled with unpredictable twists in the plot hence it was imperative for the actors to be completely in sync with their characters. With the film all set to go on the floors on January 20, the makers identified a one of a kind ‘script reading session’ which gave an opportunity for the cast and crew to come together to understand and prepare their roles thoroughly.
Leading lady Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was the cynosure of all eyes as she walked in looking very elegant and beautiful. A stellar and unique cast including Aishwarya, Irrfan Khan and Shabana Azmi charmed everyone by reaching out to interact with all other cast members, despite working with most for the first time. Even though it’s a very common practice in Hollywood, a script reading session of this sort is still a novel. The session helmed by director Sanjay Gupta with renowned scriptwriters Kamlesh Pandey and Robin Bhatt, opened interesting conversations among the actors Aishwarya, Irrfan, Shabana, Anupam Kher, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Atul Kulkarni, Siddharth Kapoor, Baby Sara Arjun and Priya Banerjee about the concept in India for a Bollywood film. Listening with rapt attention, Aishwarya, Shabana and Irrfan later followed it by a detailed dialogue with the creative team including sound designer Resul Pookutty and cinematographer Sameer Arya.
Commenting on this narration, an excited Sanjay Gupta said, “The script reading session of Jazbaa with the entire cast and crew went off very well. Internationally, it’s the norm and I think it helps the cast bond with each other before the shooting starts. It’s a better arrangement than having the actors meet each other only when they reach the sets when the shoot begins. Writers sometimes tend to miss out certain elements when they are so close to the script. The inputs I received from the actors were fresh as they have interesting perspectives when they hear the story at one go like this and will only help us make a better film! It was also an ice breaker for the talent on the film since most of my cast are working with each other for the first time.” With both Sanjay and Aishwarya being parents to young children, he has also suggested that they shoot from Monday to Friday like international films are shot.
Shabana and Aishwarya hit if off instantly as they waited for Irrfan to join them. It was not surprising to see Aishwarya go up to and welcome the young child actor, Sara, on board the film by hugging her close. Even as Sara smiled and told her that was a huge fan of Ash’s, the graceful actress responded saying, Don’t be my fan, you’re my daughter! The positivity that each actor displayed set the tone for the shoot which will begin in a few days!