‘I don’t know how the BO works’-Nandita Das

Oct 5, 2008

Pakistani Director Mehreen Jabbar and actor Nandita Das were in the Capital to promote their movie Ramchand Pakistani to be released on October 2 across India.
Nandita and Mehreen spoke about the film and the long list of International film festivals they have taken their movies - Ramchand Pakistani and Nandita’s directorial debut Firaaq to.
“We’ll be taking the films to various film festivals including in London, Dubai and also a South-Asian festival and in New York where Firaaq will be the opening film and Ramchand Pakistani is closing film,” said Nandita.
“We started with Tribecca and New York and went on to Rhode Island and the Osian in New Delhi. Now the film is playing at the Pusan film Festival in South-Korea,” said Mehreen.

Firaaq is a film based on the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots and Ramchand Pakistani is on a true story of an accidental crossing of the Indo-Pak border and Nandita seemed overwhelmed by the reception that the movies got worldwide

“Firaaq got an overwhelming response at the Toronto film festival. I’ve been to film festivals before as an actor but as a director it’s a completely different experience. It’s like taking your baby and exposing it to the world and asking everyone to pass a judgment on it,” said Nandita.

“I saw Ramchand at Osian at Delhi and it won the International Film’s Critics Award,” she added.
While both Firaaq and Ramchand Pakistani seem to have got a thumbs up from critics worldwide the movies are yet to release for public viewing and we quizzed Nandita about whether the movies would rule at the box office as well.
“I’m worst person to predict about the box-office because I have no clue about what works in this country,” she said.
Ramchandani Pakistani releases across India on October 2 but cine fans will have to wait for Firaaq till Januray 2009.