Learnt valuable lessons from debut film's failure: Shashank Khaitan

Mumbai: Shashank Khaitan maybe one of the most successful directors with the success of 'Dhadak' and 'Dulhania' franchise but the filmmaker says his debut film is yet to see the light of the day and cost him a lot of money.

Khaitan's breakthrough came with 2014 release 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania' but right after the film school, he had directed a film titled 'Sherwani Kaha Hai?' in 2011, which remains unreleased.

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"One of the reasons why I'm budget conscious is when I started out right after the film school, I ended up producing a film for myself. I lost a lot of money on that.

"I am fond of that film as it taught me a lot-What it means to lose money, how you are under pressure when you have a loan and other aspects of filmmaking," Shashank told media in an interview.

The director said much of his earnings from 'Humpty' and 'Badrinath' went into paying the debt that he had from his first film.

"There was a lot of money riding on it, which an uncle of mine had loaned to me. I had to repay that amount in parts. But I only managed to pay off the entire loan after the release of 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania'," he recalled.

"(I learnt that) you have to be pragmatic because someone's putting money and they want to recover their costs. I won't compromise on my creative vision but I won't be bullish about it either. I learnt these things and I'll keep applying that for the rest of my life,' he said.

The 37-year-old filmmaker said he started dreaming about being a part of movies after he saw 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'.

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"When you're growing up in a small town, you don't know what directors or cameramen do because only actors are written about. Whatever a small town could teach me, I learnt about the medium. I got into an acting course at the film school as the seats were full in directing course but I was clear that once I complete the course, direction is what I'm going to do."

Looking back at his career as his breakthrough 'Humpty' completed five years this month Khaitan said he was grateful for the distance he has covered.

"Very few people know that I started out in 2000 but got my breakthrough only in 2013. It was 13 years of sacrifices, learning and heartbreaks.

"The audience and the film industry has been loving and kind to me. I take it as a responsibility as I need to keep upgrading myself, keep wanting to write better and hopefully come up with better films."

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(PTI)