“Love exchange” is an upcoming romantic comedy film, which beautifully blends two diverse cultures in an entertaining, lively and convincing manner while capturing the essence of romance at the same time. Team Bollywoodirect got chance to meet Director Raj V Shetty, who walked us through his movie “Love Exchange”.
What inspired you to make a film on inter-cultural marriages in India?
Marriage is a topic most discussed in all families in India across all religions in every household. So when I came across this story written by Madhuri Vaidya I thought it was a unique idea of two people from different backgrounds to exchange their homes to understand the other persons culture. So Lekha and me set about writing the script and Ravi kumar joined our team to write the dialogues.
You think India’s perspective on inter-caste marriages will change after watching Love Exchange?
I can’t say that every person will change their opinion after watching the film. But it will definitely make the rigid think. Indian parents put all they have in giving their children the best education be it in India or sending them abroad. But after all the education the children get, the parents doubt their children’s choice of life partners.
The songs of the movie get you pretty hooked. Do you see them being popular among the youth?
Definitely. The music director Jaidev Kumarji is one of the best music directors in India but he has not yet been given the credit he deserves. This film has a Punjabi wedding song, a club song, a sufi song and an item song which have become popular. In the coming days these songs will be played at every wedding and disc wherever Indians live around the world.
Love Exchange was shot in just 24 days. Was it intentional or it just all came together?
We had planned the shoot in such a way that matched the dates of our senior actors as they were busy with other commitments also. So I had arranged for narrations first my actors and marketing team, then with my technical team and production team and music director. So once on location everybody knew exactly what was being shot. So we finished the dialogue portion in 24 days and while we edited the film we shot the songs in six days. We have released the film within six months.
What were the key challenges in making a film in such a short span? How was your experience?
The key challenge for any film in India is making a film within the budget . Because at the end of the day if you don’t have the 3 khans in your film only content and proper budgeting can get the producer the return on investment. Because everyone from the music company, to corporates to multiplexes will only be interested in your film if it can get the numbers at the box office. I started my career in movie marketing, so I knew that time and money were as important as creativity.
What next? You have any more projects coming up? If yes, what is it that we should be looking forward to?
I have two projects in the pipeline. One is a romcom which has a corporate partner on board and another is a period film based on the underworld of the 70s in Mumbai.
