Filmmaking Is a Pain: Vishal Bharadwaj

Kolkata: Filmmaking, to renowned director and music composer Vishal Bharadwaj, is a "pain" while making music is much more comfortable.

"Filmmaking is a pain," Bharadwaj said during an interactive session with Shankar Mahadevan at a music programme here on Friday.

The motley crowd broke into peals of laughter at the statement with Mahadevan commenting: "I never expected this answer."

"Whenever I am making a film, in the middle of the film I curse myself for choosing this profession because you need 300 people to get your image and then you are handling these childish actors," Vishal said.

"Sometimes they come up with such stupid questions and demands that you can't actually show what you are feeling about them as you want to achieve something through them," continued the "Haider" director.

"The temperature is over 40 degrees (Celsius), the producer is showing his watch, saying that if you don't finish the shoot in time I will lose Rs 20 lakh and there is a crowd of 100 people watching. There you feel so alone and helpless that you curse yourself," he added.

Bharadwaj, who is known for his films based on William Shakespeare's plays, is an equally popular music composer. He has directed tracks like "Beedi" in "Omkara" and "Bismil" in "Haider".

"But the happiness comes when the film is over and its time to edit. If someone has been asked to walk five steps but has taken eight, you can cut the three steps," he said.

"If the actor laughs a lot you can cut his laughter. Gives you a different kind of power. So happiness comes with power. In music composing, the frustration is also a happy feeling. It's much more relaxing as you are creating from the word go."

Veteran musician and singer Shankar Mahadevan, who was attending the session with Bharadwaj, said being a music director is a blessing.

"Truly you feel being a musician is a blessing. You feel so blessed. You are sitting in a room somewhere in Bandra and then some months later your song is playing all over the world," Shankar said.

"So every line you compose really is an achievement. It is like giving birth 100 times because you are creating something out of nothing. I realise what a great profession I am in," he added.