The first time I looked through the viewfinder of a movie camera T was when I became a director and was taking my first shot for Kalicharan. However, in a manner of speaking, I have always looked at the world through a sort of viewfinder that's in my head. I have found myself observing the events around me and the people involved in them-including myself as if I am an observer, looking through a viewfinder. It is like I have been watching this great drama of life unfold before my eyes and while I am a part of it, I am also slightly detached; affected by the happenings around me, but not quite consumed by them.
This, I feel, is what led me to write plays in college-narrating scenes from a third person's point of view. It is what led me to become first a writer and later a filmmaker. It helped me keep my head while scaling the highest heights, and helped me bounce back from the lowest of lows.
Trust me, I have had some lofty highs and I also hit rock bottom more than once. But through it all, I never stopped trusting in tadbeer. I don't know if tadbeer has an exact corresponding word in English. Effort, perhaps. As opposed to taqdeer, fate.
You would have got a whiff of the taqdeer/tadbeer tussle while watching Vidbaata, in which Dilip Kumar's character believes in tadbeer, in contrast to his friend, played by Shammi Kapoor, who believes in taqdeer. But that is not all. With Vidbaata, I demonstrated how I could use tadbeer to make a successful movie without a reigning big star. That was the time no big star wanted to work with me and I was on the brink.
Countless stars are born in our film industry and just as many fade away, some never to be heard of again. That is the story of this city of dreams. What you have in the book that you hold in your hands, written so well by Suveen Sinha and published by HarperCollins, is the story of how a young man came from nowhere, how he faced the challenges that confronted him, and what he experienced on his way to becoming what he became. This book is the story of the Hindi film industry the way it unfolded before my eyes from the 1960s till today.
I have tried to tell the truth about everyone: my friends, family, colleagues, the film industry, and above all, about myself. Through this book, I speak to everyone who is curious about the relationship filmmakers have with their films, while mirroring life on screen and also entertaining the audience.
When I put my eye on the viewfinder to look at my life, I see that I have had an exhilarating journey. Every day has been filled with excitement as I have imagined characters, screenplays, got into editing, sound designing, marketing and every other facet of filmmaking to be able to bring to you the stories I wanted to tell. In the process, I have made many friends, lost a few, and created Mukta Arts and Whistling Woods International, both of which are my pride and joy.
I have indeed been blessed.
With Karma's Child, I hand my viewfinder over to you-and true to the viewfinder approach, this memoir is written in the third person.
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