Bollywood actor-producer Jackky Bhagnani says he was thrilled to meet celebrated Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi here and also confirmed an upcoming collaboration of his home banner Puja Entertainment with the filmmaker.
“The moment I got to know that he is coming to visit us for dinner at our place, I was very excited, got ready and waited for him like a small child to meet his hero! As a student of film, there are few directors we consider as the ‘God of Filmmakers’ and he is one of them. I am so thrilled to meet him,” Jackky told IANS over telephone
“Our production house Puja Entertainment will be collaborating with him. However, we are at a primary stage and cannot revel much on this. Let the official announcement happen.”
Majidi who visited the Bhagnani residence here on Monday is busy working on his first English language film “Floating Garden” starring Deepika Padukone and planned to shoot the film in various parts of north Indian including Delhi and Kashmir.
Known for his iconic films like “Children of Heaven”, “The Color of Paradise”, “The Willow Tree” and “The Song of Sparrows” among others, Majidi is the first Iranian filmmaker to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (“Children of Heaven” in 1998).
Interestingly, this year the film “Sarabjit” that has been shortlisted for the Oscar is the debut film for Jackky as producer.
As he is very excited to be on the list where he competes with “M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story”, Jackky, asked about Bollywood’s obsession with Oscars, said: “There is no doubt that it would be a great high to win the Oscar but it is not the obsession or the only bench mark for a film.
“Yes, Oscar is one of the iconic and prestigious awards and one of our films ‘Lagaan’ received nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film making us proud; but we make a film keeping our (Indian) audience in mind.”
