Truth, gossip and urban legends: Vikramaditya Motwane on exploring the golden age of Hindi cinema in Jubilee
Some of the stories in Jubilee are real and others are just “urban legends”, director Vikramaditya Motwane said of his 10-part series, which serves as an interesting guide to the early days of Hindi cinema. Jubilee, chronicles the lives of a studio boss, his film-star wife, his trusted aide, a rising star, a naïve girl and a refugee, during and in the decades following Partition.
According to Motwane, who co-created the Prime Video show with Soumik Sen, it all started as a small idea about exploring the drama and power dynamics of those early years of cinema.
But it took five-six years for that one idea to become a pitch and then a series, Motwane said in an interview with PTI.
“These are the stories you hear… some is truth, some is gossip and everything is thrown into it. Today (who to say) what is true, what is fabricated and what is an urban legend that has taken on a life of its own to become stories that we hear about 70-75 years after the era…to present it to the audience It’s a great way,” he said.
Starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aditi Rao Hydari, Aparshakti Khurana, Vamika Gabbi, Siddhant Gupta, Nandish Sandhu and Ram Kapoor, the first part of the series will premiere on April 7, to be followed by the second part. Five episodes, releasing on April 14.
The challenges of recreating the era within a budget were immense but fun for the director known for projects like Udaan, Lootera, Trapped and the Sacred Games series.
“Every challenge was a lovely challenge and the usual challenges of saying, ‘Okay, you have to be able to create this very ambitious world with a certain amount of money and all that kind of thing…’ Those are good challenges,” Motwane said. said, credit to screenplay and dialogue writer Atul Sabharwal for coming up with layered characters rooted in moments of history.
Be it the introduction of Hindi film songs on Radio Ceylon due to the ban on film music on All India Radio or the beginning of playback singing and scope of cinema in cinema, historical moments and advancements in technology are woven into the story. An interesting way, he said.
“It doesn’t feel like you’re getting an education, but you’re getting an education in an entertaining way. The fact that this happens in an industry where we bring a lot of our love and affection to the medium, for Our own aesthetic value is a bonus. Motwane said that every day they went out and tried to achieve something through a fantastic team of writers, technicians, composers and actors.
“Everyone came with their A plus game. So, every day has been a pleasure,” he recalled.
Jubilee also recently launched her music album. With tracks like “Udaan Khatola” “Woh Tere Mere Ishq”, “Chandu Naache”, “Babuji Bhole Bhale”, the soundtrack is true to the era the story is set in and recalls the music of KL Saigal and other greats. Does
Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, Papon, Swanand Kirkire, Shahid Mallya and Mohammed Irfan, the song is composed by Amit Trivedi and lyrics are penned by Kausar Munir.
Motwane said that Trivedi initially “panicked” upon learning that he had to make 10 songs, but in the end he made a great album. The director said, “He has never disappointed me as a composer in my life.”
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