Mahesh Manjrekar on how Vaastav translated from script to screen

Director Mahesh Manjrekar made his debut with Sanjay Dutt's Vaastav, a film that would undoubtedly rank among the best first feature films by Indian filmmakers.

It was made during the peak of the 'underworld cinema' era, and yet, it stood out for its narrative style, the performance of Sanjay Dutt, and of course, for that memorable ending that not many saw coming. Interestingly, it all started with two pegs of rum, a few expletives, and Mahesh's dogged persistence.

In an interview with Pinkvilla, Mahesh narrated the genesis of Vaastav, and revealed that he had an appointment with Sanjay Dutt, but didn't have the written script ready. "Before meeting him, I went to a restaurant, ordered two pegs of Bacardi, borrowed the waiter's notepad, and started writing pointers. I wrote them as one-liners, and had 25-odd scenes ready, and then stopped because the script was there in my head," said Mahesh, who painted quite the picture with his words about the first time he met Sanjay on the sets of Dushman.

"His back was to me, and he was accompanied by Sanjay Chhel. Chhel's father was the production designer of the film, and he waved at me. Sanjay Dutt turned around, looked at me, and gave this incredulous expression that translated to 'What is he doing here?' and I strongly think, he turned back, and started abusing me to Chhel," said Mahesh, who pointed out that even though he didn't know the exact words that were spoken, he understood they were expletives by simply seeing Chhel's expressions. "Nobody knew me, nobody offered me a seat, and it was first time on such a big film set."

Nevertheless, Mahesh pointed out that he was hanging around on the sets, and walking here and there because he knew they wouldn't call him once again if he left. "In fact, Sanju was waiting for me to leave, and they were shooting without taking a break either. I think, after a point, he realised that I was too thick-skinned to be unnerved by his indifference. He then asked me the million dollar question... 'How long will you take to narrate?' and I said not more than 10 minutes... And then, we entered his room, and after the first five minutes of narration, he asked everyone else to leave. I narrated Vaastav for almost 1.5 hours. He was crazy about it, and completely blown away," said Mahesh, who revealed that it was Sanjay who roped in a producer.

However, complications arose during the production of Vaastav, which also starred Namrata Shirodkar, Mohnish Bahl, Shivaji Satam, Reema Lagoo, and Paresh Rawal. "During that time, Sanju had to go to court every single week day from 9-5. Vaastav was shot from 6 pm to 6 am the next day. And we shot through the weekend to try to complete the shoot on time. But when the film was almost 35% done, the producer had to step out because he didn't have the funds," shared Mahesh, who also pointed out how they used to immediately take the print, and start the edit. The rush print looked bad, and nothing really was happening on the shooting front either. In fact, we didn't shoot for over a year, and there were speculations that the film was shelved."

But this rush print, and multiple screenings of the film they'd shot till then tilted the scales in their favour as things started looking up for team Vaastav. "One fine day, this gentleman, Shyam Shroff, saw what we had filmed, and felt it was good. He bought the Bombay territory rights for Rs 50 lakh, and gave us an advance of Rs 25 lakh. Then, we started shooting again. When that money got over, we sold other territories, and it is with this money that we completed the shooting of Vaastav."

"You see, everybody involved in the film was passionate. They were in it for the movie. It wasn't about the money," said Mahesh, who went on to direct Sanjay Dutt in Vaastav's sequel, Hathyaar, as well as the films Kurukshetra, Pitaah, and Rakht. They have also shared screen space in films like Kaante, Plan, Musafir, and Zinda.