Producer Shiladitya Bora priases Huma Qureshi`s Bayan for making it to TIFF

Career milestones are not only a moment of validation, but also one of reflection. It struck us when we spoke with producer Shiladitya Bora, days before he headed out for Bayaan’s September 6 première at the 50th edition of Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The Huma Qureshi-led thriller is not the first time that Bora has worked with a mainstream Bollywood star. Previously, he served as the executive producer of Vicky Kaushal’s Masaan (2015) and Rajkummar Rao’s Newton (2017), albeit both weren’t the stars then that they are today. How does the producer view their rise to stardom and becoming the face of mainstream movies over the years?

“Here, actors, directors, or producers are independent only till they don’t make it. Once they get success, they only want to do [mainstream] projects. That’s not right. You should never leave your core. Once you grow, you should empower more people,” he reflected.

(From left) Shiladitya Bora with Huma Qureshi and Bikas Ranjan Mishra at the festival in Canada

On that count, he praised Qureshi for fronting Bayaan, making sure Bikas Ranjan Mishra’s directorial venture finds a place on her résumé  that has mainstream offerings like Maharani and Jolly LLB 3. While actors’ lure of big-ticket films is understandable, Bora wondered why that amounts to them not backing small but meritorious stories. He elaborated to mid-day, “I understand now that you’ve become a bigger star, you want to do bigger studio films. But since you reached here through a breakout small film, be fair. You took a chance at that time. Now things are much better for you. You can champion things. We lack that. Huma is a great sport in this, apart from being a great actor.”

The actors alone aren’t to be blamed, he assessed. The producer’s experience in the industry has shown him that actors are influenced by their managers. “Many actors depend on what their management says. After a point of time, they all are surrounded by yes-men. It’s important that they make decisions on their own. I feel many people don’t even read scripts, or decide on the basis of them. They will only do a film when a big studio is attached.”

Sept 6
When ‘Bayaan’ premièred at Toronto International Film Festival