When does a filmmaker start becoming a father? When does a set compete with the son? Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has revealed how an unfortunate accident on the sets of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur left his son, Jai Mehta, “traumatised” but he avoided calling him back even as he made multiple attempts to return.
In Gangs of Wasseypur, Jai Mehta was working as an assistant– one of his earliest gigs in the industry, almost a decade before he became a director with Scam 1992 and his latest Disney Plus Hotstar show Lootere. During a conversation with Jai on Creator x Creator, Hansal recalled the troubling time during Gangs of Wasseypur shoot, when one of the assistants passed away on set after an accident.
Watch: Creator x Creator with Hansal Mehta and Jai Mehta
“I don’t know if even you know the conversation I had with Anurag at that time. His first AD, a very young boy, passed away after an accident. He was your roommate. You had called me when the boy had fallen off and spoke to me, you were going to the hospital with him. Anurag called me and said, ‘Jai is traumatised, he is crying and is in a very bad shape.'”
Hansal said his instinct was to call Jai back, which he also discussed with Anurag, who then suggested something that changed the way he was looking at the emotionally exhausting situation.
“Anurag said, ‘Sir, if you call him back, he will remain a boy, if you let him stay here he will become a man.’ I thought it was a big responsibility for him to take, because you are my son and my responsibility. He just said, ‘Sambhal lege, hum sab hai na yaha pe.’ It was a tough moment for me as a father because you were constantly calling me and telling me you wanted to come back, and I started avoiding you,” Hansal said.
The filmmaker added that Jai desperately wanted to come back because he was “so troubled by what you saw and experienced”, but it was Anurag, who kept insisting that he should let Jai be. “He said I should let you cry and go through that process. That in many ways defined how you made Lootere. Gangs of Wasseypur was two films, made over 100 days, with difficult circumstances.
“You were getting upset with me, wondering why am I not getting you back. But Anurag, Vasan Bala and all of them were really exemplary at that time. Anurag is one of my oldest friends, he can be terribly irritating at times, but I forgive him always because of this one moment in our lives. He saw you from being a teenager, becoming a man to today the director you are,” Hansal added.
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Before Gangs of Wasseypur, Hansal revealed that he had sent Jai to meet Karan Johar as well to work on the Kajol-Kareena Kapoor starrer We Are a Family. But Jai chose to work with Anurag, as he had just seen Dev D.
“I was in my sabbatical phase which went on for too long. I was doing nothing, and I asked you what do you want to do, whom do you want to work with. I remember I sent you to Karan Johar’s office. You were supposed to join one of their films, We Are a Family and fly to Australia for that. Parallelly, I sent you to meet Anurag, and you had just watched Dev D. You decided to work with Anurag. Karan’s film was paying you money and it could have taken a big load off my chest. But you chose Anurag, who also paid you,” he added.
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