Making Kahaani was a risky decision: Sujoy Ghosh

With two flops behind him, director Sujoy Ghosh says he decided to take a risk with Vidya Balan starrer Kahaani, which looked a very unfilmable story on paper.

Sujoy says he was discouraged from making the film which had a pregnant woman as the lead star, a bunch of unknown actors and Kolkata as a backdrop after Home Delivery and Aladin failed at the box office.

"The whole idea was to work with Vidya Balan. Also, as a filmmaker it was a nice challenge to create a thriller with a pregnant woman in lead. I had two gigantic flops behind me so I just wanted to be on an unknown turf. It was more of a gut feeling," Sujoy said.

His risk has paid off well with Kahaani continuing to run in cinema halls even a month after its release. But Sujoy says he was not sure that the film would work at the box office.

"There was no guarantee whether this will work because when you look on paper, Kahaani is everything that a film should not be. What is interesting about the film is that it had no crutches but acting and the way we told the story. My heart was set on it though people discouraged me and a lot of things happened. You get discouraged at every turn in your life but once your heart is set on something it is very hard to do anything else and that's what happened to me."

Sujoy feels that another thing that worked for the film was that he had a team whose faith in the story matched his conviction.

"Everything went very well but it could have gone the other way too. I feel it worked because I had an excellent team. They all believed in it and gave their best. I would love to stand and take credit for it but it is not just me," he said. "It was an extremely difficult movie to make. We shot in very crowded places in Kolkata and most of the shots are in real time and real locations."

Though there are reports that Sujoy is keen to make Kahaani a franchise and plans to work with Vidya and Amitabh Bachchan again, the director says he just wants to spend time with his son.

"There is nothing on paper now. For the time being, I just want to play rugby with my son."

He, however, hopes that the success of Kahaani and Paan Singh Tomar, which released almost together, will make audience root for such stories.

"A good story will always work with the audience and I am hoping that the success of these two films will make them support other such films. I also hope that things will become easier for my next project," says Sujoy, who left a well-paying job to try his luck in the volatile world of filmmaking.