PremiumHansal Mehta reveals losing pictures from the National award ceremony, says he never looks back – ‘It gives you a false sense of self worth’ | Exclusive
Hansal Mehta spoke to OTTplay about not being attached to the past and looking at the future as a fresh page.
Last Updated: 08.07 PM, Mar 24, 2024
While the world of OTT and its evolution have led to people now watching content without the barrier of commercial and art house, Hansal Mehta is a filmmaker who has been in it for a long while now. The filmmaker, who now presents his son Jai Mehta’s web series Lootere, over the years has given Indian cinema some of the most intriguing and loved movies. But what if we tell you that the filmmaker doesn’t know where the official pictures of him receiving the National Award are? Yes, you read that right, but there is a reason for it and a motto that the filmmaker lives by.
Hansal Mehta On How He Keeps Going
Hansal Mehta won the National Award for his 2014 film Shahid starring Rajkummar Rao. The film won the award for Best Direction and also won hearts as viewers lapped it up in no time. But when he joined OTTplay for an exclusive chat ahead of the release of Lootere, we spoke to him about going through the highs and lows of being a filmmaker and still being strong at it. We asked him what keeps him going, and the filmmaker was quick to say that he never looks back even if the past day was a glorious one.
In the course of our conversation, when OTTplay asked Hansal Mehta how he keeps going, the filmmaker said, “It’s very simple. You get up in the morning and tell yourself that today is a new day; just don’t look back. I have never looked back; I don’t have copies of my old films. I don’t keep them. I hate living in self-nostalgia. I am a freak for nostalgia; I love old films, but self-nostalgia is destructive. Matlab aap apne aap ko hi glorify karte raho (which means you keep glorifying yourself). I don’t have photographs of my National Awards, of me receiving the National Awards. I have some Facebook recordings; the original pictures were sent to me from Delhi. I have lost them.”
Hansal Mehta On Working With Shah Rukh Khan
Right when Hansal Mehta said he didn’t know where the pictures were, son Jai Mehta said they were with him. Jai Mehta adds, “They are with me,” Hansal Mehta continues, “I have lost them. I don’t really want to see them, I don’t care for them. That is such a barrier to getting up and challenging yourself. You get lost in that. It gives you a false sense of self-worth, and it is not worth it. I mean you are worthless. You get up in the morning telling yourself there is a lot to prove.”
In the interview, the filmmaker also spoke about whether he would want to work on a film that has song and dance and maybe a Shah Rukh Khan cameo. Hansal Mehta was so excited about the prospect that he said how he would love to do it if the script demanded and cast Shah Rukh Khan as the lead because he is such a great actor.
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