'I want to reinvent myself,' says Madhur Bhandarkar

He calls his journey in filmdom a "satisfying" experience, but three time National Award winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, best known for his gritty social dramas, is itching for change now.

The director of films like Chandni Bar and Fashion is now working on a comedy and a children's film is also in the offing. "I have had a great journey till now, but I now want to do something different.

I love the work I have done till now and I am not saying I am bored with it but I think it is time I reinvented myself and did something different," Bhandarkar told PTI in an interview.

The 41-year-old director's last film was Jail, a take on the grim reality of Indian prisons, which was watched and applauded by senior BJP leader LK Advani. But Bhandarkar has now shifted gears and started work on the script of a comedy.
 
"There is not much that I can reveal about the film. I am still working on the script and the casting has not been decided. But I am excited about it as it's my first comedy," said Bhandarkar.

But he has no plans to go the way of the 'brainless' comedy, which he says has become a trend of sort in Bollywood.

"It is definitely not slapstick comedy, the brainless variety which we see nowadays, but something in the Hrishikesh Mukherjee genre," said the filmmaker who learnt his craft watching films at the video cassette library where he worked as a youngster.

Bhandarkar catapulted from obscurity to instant fame with the 2001 film Chandni Bar which starred Tabu and Atul Kulkarni, revolving around the travails of a bar dancer, trying to bring up two children in the city of Mumbai.

He tasted commercial success with the 2005 hit Page 3 and his last hit was Fashion which won Priyanka Chopra, the Filmfare award for Best Actress.

The award had become the bone of contention between Bhandarkar and filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar, who took to the mic at the ceremony saying that Aishwarya Rai deserved the honour for her role in his film Jodhaa Akbar.

Bhandarkar had not taken the remarks kindly and decried them in public. But the two directors have buried the hatchet now. "Ashutosh is a friend. He said something and I reacted to that. But all is well now," said Bhandarkar.

Other than directing the comedy, the filmmaker will be producing five films for his banner Bhandarkar Films in the coming year.