A dogs’ tale

In a career spanning 47 years, filmmaker K.C. Bokadia worked with superstars such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn. He’s now venturing into Telugu cinema with his directorial debut, Namaste Nesthama, which releases on  January 3. Starring Srikanth and Eshanya-Maheswari, the film is being made as a sequel of his 1985-Hindi blockbuster Teri Meherbaniyan, which had starred the then-superstar Jackie Shroff.

“I’ve wanted to direct a Telugu film for a long time, and I’m glad that I eventually got the right script. In fact, I hope to make films in all languages. For this one, I took the essence of the Hindi film and tweaked it to suit the sensibilities of the audience,” shares Bokadia who claims his passion for cinema keeps him going. But why a film revolving around two dogs, we wonder (one of which, by the way, is from London). “A film might fail, but a dog doesn’t,” says Bokadia jokingly. “Moreover, these dogs are siblings in the film, and are very integral to the story — more like the heroes of the story.”  Bokadia has previously made four dog-based films (Main Tera Dushman, Paap Ka Ant, Teri Meherbaniyan and Kundan). “But all of them are hits,” he defends with a smile at our pointing it out.  “Hollywood studios still make animal-based movies because they make for a good entertainment package. I guess there are dog lovers in all parts of our country, and I only believe in making a good cinema.”