Mumbai: Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar's film including Vicky Donor, Piku, October, or the upcoming Gulabo Sitabo, portrays his inclination towards everyday life. The director finds diversity of the ordinary in India fascinating.
"I am really influenced by normal, simple, everyday life and people, like the Biji and Dolly in Vicky Donor, who used to drink and say whatever they felt like. These characters were so lively. I have seen these people around me. I feel I am like them, even in my social media posts. I observe them, pick up notes and moments to make a film out of it," the director told PTI.
Amitabh Bachchana and Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Gulabo Sitabo, whose story is about a landlord and tenant in old Lucknow, follows the characters, living a hand-to-mouth existence while trying to outfox each other.
"I call it an ensemble cast or the world of Gulabo Sitabo which is about the lifestyle of my characters. I just go and sit there in a corner and observe these characters through my camera. That's how I shot the film. These actors feel like people picked up from real life," he said.
The main story of Mirza (Amitabh) and Baankey (Ayushmann) whose conflict has no religious angle though they come from different faiths as, according to the filmmaker, most of the people in India coexist peacefully.
"I remember I used to play football in my childhood and my team had people from different faiths and backgrounds. It had the son of the person who would take us to the school on his rickshaw or the guy who came to pick up our garbage but I never knew this. When I grew up, I was told by society, you have to become something else and he has to become something else and that divide was put in my head. My childhood didn't have that divide. We were just eight years old and would meet in the evening to play. This has had a lot of influence in my life and films," he said.