In this interview Shirish talked about his various projects, the ones in the works, on hold due to financial issues and of course the one in the past. His experience in the film industry so far, basically some really good Filmi fun! And of course, you’ll notice the format of the interview…ab waqt ke saath toh chalna padta hi hai but it took a while to figure out how to embed the files, for some reason all the codes out there weren’t working, but it finally worked and now you get to be a little more filmi!

We’ve been hearing a lot about your upcoming films – Tees Maar Khan, Joker, Alien Sahib, and Udan Patola – can you give us a little tidbit about each one.

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Discusses why he changed the name to Alien Sabhib form Udan Patola and further talks about Alien Sahib.

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Talks about another film in the works under ‘Three’s Company’ with Salman Khan, an action film. They will start shooting for this film once completing Alien Sahib. He also discusses Joker.

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Please tell us about your experience with Jaan-E-Mann.

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What’s your favorite thing about Jaan-E-Mann, favorite memory about making that movie?

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What made you change your paths so drastically, from electronics engineer to writer/director? Also, what advice would he give to anyone interested in working in ‘Bollywood?’ (We know, we know…it’s Filmistan.)

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What kind of challenges do you face in your job?

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What’s the best thing about your job?

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How do you start the process of writing a script? Do you first have the characters in mind or the story?

Here’s what he said

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And lastly, our “rapid fire” round…the favorites!

Pastime: Watching movies!
Food: I’m not a foodie, I’ll eat basically anything….protein shakes!
Movie: Man on the Moon by Milos Forman.
Filmmaker: James Cameron
Book: Mahabharat
Song: Chayyia Chayyia from Dil Se
City: New York

And lastly. . . Shirish close your eyes and tell us your favorite thing to do in Mumbai. If it were a Sunday morning, where would you take us?

Hmmm….haven’t thought of that yet. I’d have to look at your pictures first.

Jasmine: You would have to look at our pictures?
Shirish: Yeah, yeah…(laughs)
Jasmine: We’re your Facebook and Twitter friends. (laughs) We’ll say ‘hi’ on there and than you’ll know what we look like.
Shirish: I’ll take you wherever you guys want to go yaar. (laughs)

There was a lot of laughing going on at this point…that’s why we transcribed this part of the interview, it’s kind of hard to hear over all that laughing.

Sona: What do you do on Sunday mornings?
Shirish: I’m mostly working…(laughs)
Shirish: I guess you’ll take us to your workplace than…

More laughing

Shirish: Yeah yeah, I’ll take you to my workplace…that’s what I do, I just wake up and go to work (laughing)!

The destination for IIFA Awards 2011 has been announced and finally they come closer to us…they’ll be hosted in Toronto! Fingers crossed, hoping we’ll make it there. What’s really weird is that the 2010 location has not been finalized yet but from some of the past news that we dug up it seems as if it might be in Ireland.

Salman Khan to play Mogambo in Mr. India 2! Surprised? So were we – so is this supposed to be a sequel or a remake? Still confused and hate the idea of ruining a cult classic, a few have been ruined in the past and we don’t want to witness another one…remember Ram Gopal Verma Ke Sholay!

Preity Zinta to host a talk show…c’mon she’ll never let anyone else talk, remember her on Koffee With Karan!

Things have changed a bit in the media and instead of linking every actress with her current co-star, now they’re being linked to their directors! Rani Mukherjee and Adiya Chopra and the latest being Sonam Kapoor and Punit Malhotra.

He died of cardiac arrest at his Santa Cruz home. He was recovering from a stroke he had suffered about two months ago.

He was born in Burdwan, West Bengal on January 13, 1926. After he graduated in 1944 from Calcutta University, he wanted to become an actor in Filmistan. Apparently, there was something else in store for him.

He joined Filmistan in 1948 as an assistant director at Bombay Talkies, the famous movie company founded in 1934.

Samanta directed his first feature film – Bahu in 1954. After the success for his next few films, Inspector (1956), Sheroo (1956), Detective (1957) and Hill Station (1957), he started his own production company, Shakti Films, in 1957.

The first release of his company was the classic, Howrah Bridge, with Ashok Kumar and Madhubala as the lead.

In all, Samanta directed 43 feature films, including 37 Hindi, and 6 Bengali films.

He has left a legacy of great films for generations to cherish and enjoy, some of which include: An Evening in Paris (1967); Kati Patang (1970); Pagla Kahin Ka (1970); Jane Anjane (1971); Anuraag (1972); Ajnabee (1974); Amanush (1975); Mehbooba (1976); Anurodh (1977); The Great Gambler (1979)
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Most of the information is obtained from Wikipedia.