Filmmaker on Why Guru Dutt's Biopic Deserves Film Format

National Award-winning filmmaker Bhavna Talwar is gearing up to direct a biopic of late iconic filmmaker-actor Guru Dutt.

The biopic is titled “Pyaasa”, just like Dutt’s iconic films of 1957, and Talwar is in the process of casting the actors for her film. Dutt’s life was intense and complex, and it took Talwar seven years to pen the story. Still, instead of an elaborate storytelling format like a web series, she has opted to make a feature film to encapsulate her subject’s journey.

“He was a larger-than-life personality and within 10 years he had seen it all — success as a filmmaker, actor, the commercial success of his cinema, admiration of his fans as an actor, and he also found the companionship of Geeta Dutt, his co-star and wife. At the same time, there is melancholy. You cannot cramp that into a small screen. It deserves a feature film format,” Talwar told IANS.

She added: “The story does not require 10-hour storytelling. His journey is fascinating and needs to be captured on a big screen. It took me seven years for detailed research work, and several conversations to find a compelling story that will not only interest me and my team but also the audience of a new generation, for them to go to the theatre to watch the film.”

Guru Dutt had a successful career in the as an actor and filmmaker between 1950 and 1960 with films like “Pyaasa”, “Kaagaz Ke Phool”, “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam”, “Aar-Paar”, “Baazi”, “Mr. & Mrs. 55”, and “Chaudhvin Ka Chand” among others.

In her film, Bhavna intends to capture the transformation of Guru Dutt from a telephone operator to a prominent figure of Indian cinema.

“An interesting part is, how his personal and professional lives were intertwined. He met Geeta Dutt during the film ‘Baazi’ and these two budding talents became stars and got married, and their personal and professional lives reflected in each other. It is a quite interesting journey. I am trying to capture that,” shared the filmmaker who bagged National Award for the Pankaj Kapur-starrer film “Dharm” in 2007.