Habib started his career as a cameraman with NDTV. An immensely qualified director armed with two Masters Degrees from renowned universities, he not only has an unique eye for detail, evident in ‘Do Dooni Chaar’ but also has proved that film-making is not only an art. According to him, it is about being able to relate reel-life characters and real-life characters with a never-ending passion for film-making.
He shared that his real-life incidents inspired him for ‘Do Dooni Chaar’, a middle-class family’s journey from a 2-wheeler to a 4-wheeler. Speaking about the movie and its casting, Habib said, “Your film has to be watched - there has to be an audience for it. I didn’t know who would be cast as the father and the mother. I could have cast two National School of Drama students but I wanted the characters to be real, therefore I chose Mr. Rishi Kapoor and Ms. Neetu Singh in the respective roles. Mr. Rishi Kapoor reminds me of my father and after I finished writing the script, I knew that only he could play the role to perfection. Ms. Neetu Singh was the most natural choice as she slipped into the character effortlessly and they both complimented each other beautifully.”
He regaled the students with his witty comments and narrated stories of how he and his family stayed in a one-bedroom kitchen flat and how all the day-to-day incidents of his life helped shape the four characters of ‘Do Dooni Chaar’. He explained the opening scene of the movie where the family is shown fighting, which could easily be related to middle-class family settings where everybody is fighting for personal space along with their personal dilemmas. He also stressed upon the fact that every movie has to have two climaxes. The movie should be accessible and the audience should enjoy it. “I don’t shy away from the fact that I am a mainstream person,” he added.
On being asked if ‘Band Baaja Baraat’ was a commercial film, he said, “Band Baaja Baraat was a commercial and very clichéd film. I wanted to take a clichéd idea and improvise on it. The power of a cliché is that it helps in accessibility. All of us like to see what happens in our lives transformed onto the screen, the movie was a typical movie which everybody would relate to at some point or another. I didn’t want to turn it into a spoof. But I had a ball with all the characters. It was totally exciting and a lot of fun.”
Upon being asked whether professional training helps future film-makers, he replied, “I totally value this training and having personally gone through it, I would recommend it to all film students. As a viewer, you are in total awe but as a film-maker it helps in demystifying the whole process and understanding finer nuances of film-making, which then helps the student as a film-maker to collaborate really well with other film-makers.”
At the end of the session, Habib said that he was happy to be invited to the institute and that he was very impressed by the students. He said “When I came to WWI, I instantly felt envious! The campus is magnanimous and spacious. This institute offers everything under one roof and it is the best place to learn. The kind of education and guidance WWI provides is remarkably outstanding. Apart from all aspects of film-making, it also teaches students the business aspects by offering an MBA degree. Any film student couldn’t ask for more.” He signed off by wishing them all the best for their future endeavours.
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