In a notoriously fickle industry, where does this tremendous stress on personal relationships come from? "I'm a small town guy," Chopra smiles, as if that is explanation enough.
Hailing from Kashmir, and growing up in Srinagar, Vinod only learnt English when he was 16. "And I haven't let go of my roots," he declares powerfully, before launching into an amusing tirade of his nephew Ashvin, who now calls himself Ash and speaks with an indecipherable accent.
"The guy was born in Lucknow, yaar. I was there when this kid was born. Where are his roots? What's gone wrong? I'm telling you, one thing I haven't forgotten is where I come from and my roots, and that's critical. And I'm telling you this because rediff is read by a lot of Indians living abroad, I would want to tell them, for God's sake, don't forget where you come from. And I am not anti-West. I'm doing a film in Hollywood. But I don't sit there and answer to Vy-Nod. I say Vi-Nod, and correct them. It takes them some time. But bolte hain phir Vinod (they do finally say Vinod). I'm not going to call myself Vy-nod Choppra."
Speaking of Hollywood for a second, there was all this conversation about a film with Dustin Hoffman. "Yes, that film is still on the cards. It's called The Fifth Move, though it might now be renamed 64 Squares. It's an English film, and in terms of casting, all I can say right now is that I'm trying to get Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan involved on that project as well."
So there we go, another repeat collaborator. How difficult is it finding people to gel with? "Very difficult. I have no friends. As you know, I don't go to parties. I don't like many people," he pauses dramatically, "and most people don't like me. I don't gel with people at all. But then people I do gel with, they stay with me over long periods of time, 20 or 30 years, nobody leaves. They're lasting relationships. So I'm sure I don't have to meet a psychiatrist," Vinod laughs.
Thus we see the same group of actors recurring in various films, large actors squeezing into bit-roles if need be. But the Vidhu Vinod Chopra All-Stars report to the sets, pretty much every time. "It's because, as I said, if I have perfection than I stick with it. I don't shift around too much. And with actors, it's the same thing. I don't find many actors who would like to work with me because of the work with me because of the way I work. I'm not that easy to work with."
Hmm? "See, most actors who are stars, are used to a certain kind of functioning in the Hindi film industry. Coming late, etc. For me, when I work with a star, the first thing is that...," Vinod trails off again, looking at a wall-sized poster of his film. "See, if you see the poster of Eklavya, it's very unusual for two things: the face of Jimmy Shergill is as big as the face of Saif Ali Khan. I'm sure nobody notices, but it's not just there. And this doesn't happen (elsewhere). And that's how I look at actors. To me they are equal, they are both fine actors."
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