Kunal Kohli: There are no egos in filmmaking

Mumbai, April 6 (IANS) Director Kunal Kohli likes to keep an open door policy on his sets. He lets the actor do the number of takes to their heart’s content.

Kunal recently spoke with IANS, and said that there is no place for egos in filmmaking, and the essence of telling a cinematic story lies in collaboration.

He told IANS, If an actor comes up to me, and says, ‘I want to do one more’. And I say, ‘No, I've got what I wanted too. Let's move ahead’. Then they won't say anything. But somewhere in their mind they'll be like, ‘Why didn't he let me do it?’ They'll be unhappy or creatively unsatisfied. The next time they want to do something, they know that I will l say no to it, and then they won't ask. There's a rift created between actor and director. And when that happens then it's not a good thing”.

He further mentioned, “And how much more time will it take? One more take? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 15 minutes? So what? It'll take an hour. Take an hour, do it. Let the actor do one more and let him sleep better. Okay, if they find out they'll do something else which you would like. Great. If you as a director didn’t like what the actor did in that extra take, you can always remove it from the edit. Move on. There's no ego in filmmaking. And where there's ego in filmmaking, it's a mess”

Earlier, Kunal had said that he likes to be surprised while working. He has said that the magic in the performances of actors often comes from the most unusual space of silences.

Kunal recently spoke with IANS, and shared that it’s not always good to have a solid grip or sense of control on a film set because it restricts the artists from exploring the unknown space.

--IANS

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