"Drona is a coming-of-age fantasy film"

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: Fantasy film Drona, Goldie Behl’s second after Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai, has been in post-production since December 2007, and as the next release date of October 2 draws near, the director admits he’s still fighting against time to put the final touches. “Films take time and money,” asserts Behl “and since we didn’t have too much money, we needed to put in more time.” Be that as it may, Behl agrees the producers have ‘spent on the higher side’ on the special effects. Just dressing up Kay Kay Menon, who plays the villain Riz Rizawan, and his den, styled on a palace in Prague, took Rs 22 crore. But are Indian audiences ready for fantasy films? “Oh yes, I think so,” Behl tells Sudipta Datta, “after all we have grown up on folklore and fairytales and mythology… all I am doing is transporting it on film.” Excerpts:

You have taken your time to release Drona. Why has it taken so long?

We were scheduled to release the film on August 15, but the visual effects were not in. It’s been in post-production since December 2007. And I am still struggling to finish it by October 2. These things take time and money. In the West, such films, which use a lot of special effects as Drona has, are in the works for a longer period of time. I wish the media would understand that.

So how would you label Drona?

It’s a coming-of-age fantasy film. We have grown up on tales of mythology. Drona is the protector of society. In this film the “protector of society” is Aditya, played by Abhishek Bachchan, as he embarks on the journey to understand what his true destiny is. All of us are here for a special reason — and Drona is Aditya’s story. The film has Indian roots but is styled in western values of production and technique.

Who handled the visual effects?

Our visual effects supervisor is David Bush, who has worked on a number of European films and we handed out work to six Indian studios, like Eros’s EyeQube, Prana, Future Works, Red Chillies, Tata Elxsi and Prime Focus Plus. The skill in India is what everybody is looking at, so though the supervisor is western, all the six companies are Indian. I am very happy with the visual effects; we have done something innovative, something creative.