Ankhon Dekhi is a humorous film about a man's
journey, the script for which has been written by Rajat Kapoor himself.
Infact after the script was complete, Rajat
approached quite a few production houses with the script.
After failing to raise money for his
upcoming independent film, a disheartened Rajat Kapoor had poured out his disappointment
in a tweet stating that he will put the script on a backburner and go back to theatre.
Never had he thought that a simple tweet can
do what months of his hard work couldn’t. Within hours, he landed a producer.
Manish Mundra, an NRI with a petrochemical
factory in Nigeria who followed Rajat on the social networking site and had
watched his films, tweeted back saying he was interested in investing in the
project. When contacted
Manish in Nigeria, he confirmed the news over the phone and said: “Rajat sent
across his cell number and we had a telephonic conversation. He offered to send
me the script but I was more interested in the budget.”
Rajat initially thought it was a hoax as Manish knew
nothing about the industry or the working of a film.
However after a brief interaction over email and then
phone he found himself a producer. Manish flew down
to Mumbai, met him and signed up as the producer of Ankhon Dekhi before flying
back leaving him to make the film the way
he wanted.
“He returned when the film was ready and
fortunately liked it a lot. Now, Manish is so gung-ho about the medium that he
plans to make at least one film a year,” said a delighted Rajat.
His debut production, Ankhon Dekhi, which is
about an elderly man who one fine day decides he will only believe what he
sees, is gearing up for a March 21 release.
“It is a modest budget for a Hindi film
but the biggest budget I have worked with. If the film works, maybe Manish and
I will collaborate on another film,” said the still-awed Rajat who is yet to
believe his luck.
His producer added, “I’ve invested Rs 8-10
crores in the film which is small for Bollywood but big for me. But it’s worth
the expense.”
Ankhon Dekhi will mark Rajat coming back to
direction after a huge gap. Previously, Rajat has directed films like Mixed
Doubles (2006) and Mithya (
