"Joker will be India's first Bollywood film in full 3D"

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"Joker will be India's first Bollywood film in full 3D" - Shirish Kunder

Joker has been Shirish Kunder's dream project and he makes no qualms in stating that. Not just that, the director is now working on making his project larger than life? A lot has been said and talked about in the media with rumours rife with talks about how Shirish has kept postponing the film for the right time. Bollywood Hungama caught up with the man who is by all means excited with his upcoming release Tees Maar Khan and his big dream project - Joker.

Talking about the film, Shirish says, "By now I guess its common knowledge that Joker has been my dream project, but the media and people keep saying that it's a superhero film, however its not. In fact though it was earlier designed and scripted to be a superhero film I have changed it and reworked the entire story of the film. The new Joker, since I had the rights to the name, will be like any other commercial Bollywood pot boiler, but one thing for sure is that Joker will differ in terms of its innovation, unlike anything what we have seen till date."

The biggest news of the hour is that Kunder plans to make Joker as a 3D film. Shirish reaons, "Coming to the whole 3D aspect of the film, if we look back it was always there, but seldom used for the sole reason that we didn't have the right technology to screen and view the film. Simply put with the advancements today with LED 3D television, it becomes more effective and sensible to make a film in 3D."

So does Shirish plan to go the James Cameron way for Joker? Shirish replies, "See Avatar was made on a whole new generation of camera techniques that captured live animation; however there was a major part of the film that was computer generated. Joker, on the other hand, will have hardly any computer generated graphics, so using the camera James Cameron developed will not be a suitable option. For my film, we will use the available stereoscopic camera since with that we can shoot the entire project in 3D, like shooting a normal film."

Joker will be the first ever Indian 3D film that will feature a Bollywood superstar. So how did Shirish manage to get Akshay on board? "Initially, when I approached Akshay about the film and told him that I was planning it in 3D, he was a bit sceptical about it, but later that changed. The reason behind this change of mind was when I showed him a poster I had developed at home of Joker which was in full 3D. Akshay saw the poster with the 3D glasses and that was the turning point, he became a believer that we could actually pull off the entire film in 3D."

Shirish jokes that he asked Farah to keep her hands off Joker. "For Tees Maar Khan, I showed Farah the script to read but she liked it so much that she hijacked the entire project. However, for Joker she knows how eagerly I have been wanting to make it so when I showed her the new script, she only got to read it and gave me some feedback."

Coming to the music of the film Shirish says, "It will be a mix of various music directors, and yes since I have also started composing I will also pitch in with a few tracks."

Talking about the technical side of things, Shirish states that he will be opting for Indian talent rather than getting western technicians for Joker. "We will be using most of our Indian technicians for the job. Now you may ask why, well it's simply because we have a lot of talent here. With Joker, we will be pushing the limits in terms of talent. So, we are hoping to quite literally make a never seen before Bollywood film with Joker, making it Indian's first Bollywood film in full 3D."

Now comes the big question that has been doing rounds of the media for months now. Which actress will star opposite Akshay in Joker? Shirish reveals that he has locked on the actress but refuses to reveal the names at this stage. "Yes, we have already finalized the leading actress in the film; apart from that we also have an ensemble cast that will be announced. However, I would prefer not to talk about it as I don't feel that I could announce it alone. Akshay and I will be making a formal announcement of the same in a few days."

Joker goes on floors in January 2011 and will be shot mainly in India.
 
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