Filmmaker Abhishek Sharma to WION on film 'Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari' and a decade-long career

Critically acclaimed film ‘Tere Bin Laden’ completes 10 years today and with it director Abhishek Sharma celebrates his decade-long run in Bollywood industry. They say your first film is always close to your heart and thus Abhishek speaksto WION looking back at his trajectory of films on this special dayand discusses what he aims to bring to the table with each movie, one step at a time.

“Its been a great journey. I learned a lot from each film,” says Abhishek of his years in the world of entertainmentand adds, “Two of the five films I made have had a great impact on the audience (‘Tere Bin Laden’ & ‘Parmanu’) and I am grateful for that. Even the other films which didn’t succeed as much have helped me to improve my craft as a director and so I’m thankful to those experiences as well.”

Over the course of a decade of being a part of the industry, Abhishekfeels that “the industry has become much more brave in terms of content creation and cinema has evolved a lot”. He says, “We are surely in the second golden age of hindi film industry.”

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Ask him about the power he yields as a filmmaker as cinema is single-handedly the most impactful tool of opinion maker, Abhishek agrees and says, “Cinema is the most powerful medium in the world and as filmmakers we should take our jobs seriously as influencers. Films are soft power and Bollywood represents India in hundreds of countries.”

“It is up to us how we want to shape the narrative of new India and how we want to evolve as storytellers," he adds.

Abhishek is currently busy with the post-production work of his upcoming film ‘Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari’ featuring Manoj Bajpayee, Diljit Dosanjh and Fatima Sana Shaikh in lead roles. Produced by Zee Studios, the film's shoot was completed prior to the nationwide lockdown.Talking of the film, he says, “SPMB is a genre defining family comedy. It is a fun film with the 90s nostalgia and a fair bit of social satire. This is a first film that looks at the business of wedding detectives and how they become a pain in the life of unsuspecting grooms. It is a hilarious and clean movie to be enjoyed by families. We have a stellar cast and it was a great ensemble of very talented actors coming together.”

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Starting off with comedy and next on his sleeve from the same genre, Abhishek has a bent towards the genre. He admits and says, “Comedy is like dance. You either have that rhythm or you don’t. I feel I’m blessed with a sense of humour and thus I love to direct comedies. However like Parmanu I would want to also do other genre films.”

Abhishek also has another film with his ‘Parmanu’ actor John Abraham but he thinks “it’s too early to speak about it” and signs off.