Director Apoorva Lakhiya opens up about his film Haseena Parkar!

After remaking Zanjeer in 2013, filmmaker Apoorva Lakhiya is returning to direction with a dark and gritty film called Haseena Parkar, based on the life of dreaded Indian Don Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parkar. Starring Shraddha Kapoor in the title role, the film has created a lot of buzz among the audience thanks to its powerful and intriguing trailer. To know more about the film, Eastern Eye recently met director Apoorva Lakhiya. In a candid conversation with us, he reveals many interesting facts related to the film. The following are excerpts from an interview with him.

What made you make a film on Haseena Parkar?

It's a good script and a good story. People assume that Haseena Parkar is a gangster film but it is not. It is about a woman's journey who, fortunately, or unfortunately, is born in a gangster family. She was just born in one such family but nothing was proved against her. For a woman living in a 12/12 square foot home and who studied till 9th standard to become Haseena Aapa is what we are talking about and making a film that itself is an amazing journey of a woman who comes from the kind of background she comes from. The biggest tragedy of her life is that she lost her brother and her husband was shot seventeen times right under her nose, she lost her son which is the worst thing that can happen to any mother. She had to undergo all this with no fault of hers and only because of the enmity created by her brother. That made an interesting subject to go into. The fifth character is Bombay because it tells us about how Bombay changed to Mumbai. I found that very interesting and that is one of the reasons why I thought of making this film.

When you make a biopic on a gangster, the characters are glorified. Dawood Ibrahim has been shown as a hero in many other films. Did you go that extra mile to ensure that his character is not glorified in the movie?

I have justified your answers in the trailers and promos. There isn't a particular dialogue that is glorifying anyone. We have maintained what he has implicated for. There is a slot where we have justified that he is innocent and that he has not done anything wrong. The second part is that I invited a lot of flak when I made Shootout At Lokhandwala that I have a great affinity for gangster movies. Of course, I understand that you get branded. That doesn't mean that I stop making films that I don't believe in or films I don't like.

When I met Haseena Parkar, I did not meet her to make a film on her. I was approached to make a film on Dawood Ibrahim. I blatantly refused it. They said that you are unaware of his stories when he was young. Everybody knows him when he became Dawood and his story after he became what he was when he went to Sharjah and watched cricket with celebrities and musicians. The makers wanted me to make a film on the initial days of his journey. They just asked me to meet his family and when I met Haseena and listened to her story, I felt hers was a better story to work on. That's when the film happened.

How did you figure out that Shraddha Kapoor would be the ideal choice to play the title role?

To be very honest, Sonakshi Sinha was supposed to do the film. But there were some issues with the dates and then I was just waiting for the selection of the right heroine that would play Haseena and the first person I got an appointment with was Shraddha Kapoor. I went to her because two days prior to that I had watched her film Haider on TV. The only thing I saw was Shraddha as a Muslim girl. That set the ball rolling. It was the first look of Shraddha Kapoor in that film that convinced me. I thought that if she can play a Muslim girl with so much of conviction she could do a fantastic job as a Haseena Parker also.

She never questioned me on playing a mother of a 25-year-old son. She just asked me, "Did that really happen?" as she felt she could do justice to the role. I felt that this woman is really confident. Then came the hair and makeup tests, body doubles, lots of prosthetics and all. I had signed a contract with her that she would have to give me three months for preparations. That was when the look actually came out. This is the first time that I have shot a film in a chronological order.

In one of the interviews, it was mentioned that Arun Gawli killed Haseena Parker's husband. How have you shown that incidence in the movie?

In my film, we have clearly shown that Arun Gawli's men killed her husband. And there on, her brother takes revenge by killing his men in J J Hospital. They shot two policemen and 4 nurses, which was in the news everywhere. It's true that Dawood is the one who broke the rule where you don't mess with the gangster's family members. What goes around comes around. I have shown everything that I have a solid proof of and have moulded it into a story. We all are aware of the Babri Masjid, Bombay riots and many more things. All these are facts that cannot be changed. I cannot dramatize them. I can only bring about a change in the way they are being portrayed. I have to give my interpretation as a director and how I see that particular scene. Obviously, no one knows what Dawood was when he went to Dubai. I have dramatized that. I have no clue about what actually happened and the kind of relationship Haseena and Dawood shared with each other. As far as the other facts are concerned, I cannot change them as I have taken real names. That is only what I can read and make out from what I hear from people. I have done extensive research, have gone to Pune and spoke to many people. I spoke to Meera Borwanker who had interviewed Haseena Parker after the bomb blasts. She is the commissioner of jail now. See, their children may say that he (Arun Gawali) is honest but the FIRs presents a different story. I made it very clear to Haseena Parker's family in the very beginning that my film won't be just about her. It will have many other things also. The film consists of all the research I have done so far.

Is Siddhant's character named Dawood in the film because in Shootout At Lokhandwala, his character was changed to Dilawar?

No one calls him Dawood. Everybody addresses him as "Bhai". We have mentioned the D gang because it is a fact and while making a film on his sister one has to make sure that the names of all the siblings are mentioned without missing anyone. No one really calls him so. No one calls her Haseena, Haseena. They address her "Aapa". Even when you talk to the police, very few will address her as Haseena and the rest will call her Aapa. That is what she is called.

How did you go about with recreating the places?

We took some photographs of the restaurant where Haseena's husband used to work and duplicated them exactly. It is impossible to shoot now because 70's and 80's Bombay is totally different. There are numerous hoardings around. Even if it is a long shot you have to erase the buildings and many more things. We shot the exteriors in Pune because it still looks like Nagpada and Dongri of the 1970s. We erected some sets in Essel Studio.

Has Shraddha Kapoor done full justice to the role and surpassed your expectations?

I am an ardent fan of Shraddha Kapoor. I think that should sum it up. She is fantastic. I had told everyone in the unit to not carry their cell phones to sets because in the first place there were no cell phones at that time. And I found an actor with a cell phone and threw it so far that it bounced on the truck but nothing happened to it. I was really disappointed as I did not manage to set that example. We have to play games so that everyone understands that certain things are not going to work and that they have to abide by our rules. I hoped that the same issue would happen on the third day too and everybody laughed it off as nothing actually happened. Though I had told that cell phones were not allowed, Shraddha used to surf on the internet. Initially, I felt she wasn't concentrating. But then when I actually saw it I was shocked that she was watching pregnancy videos to see how pregnant women sit down. They hold their back and she was watching that and doing her homework. I was spellbound to see her so dedicated towards her work.

How conscious have you been to make sure that Haseena Parkar does not seem like a stereotypical film?

Like I said, the instances are used and the dates are set so I cannot move away from that. I have taken cinematic liberties in the way that I have portrayed things on the screen. We know that many died in J J Hospital but we have little or no knowledge about how that whole thing happened. So we have taken creative liberties but eventually, we end up with the factual things that how many people died. We have mentioned those facts.

Haseena and Dawood's stories run parallel in the movie or are interconnected?

Dawood leaves the film after a point. He leaves the film when he left India. We have not even reached the position when he moves to Pakistan. Our film ends when he is in Dubai at the White House. There are instances where Haseena's husband dies and when he learns about it and how does he react to it. Once he leaves the country we focus more on Haseena's character because that is when her growth starts. Where she goes from Haseena to Haseena Parkar to Haseena Aapa.

Initially, there were rumours that Rani Mukherjee was being considered for the film. Was she even approached?

No, I did not approach her.

What are your upcoming projects after Haseena Parkar?

I am not working on anything. I am concentrating on this film. I never had another film before my film releases. My average is two and a half years for a film. This took much time, though.