10 years back, Neeraj Ghaywan attended the Cannes Film Festival with his film Masaan, which also marked Vicky Kaushal's debut. After all these years, the director was back again at the 78th Cannes Film Festival with his film Homebound, led by Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, and Vishal Jethwa.
Back when the film was announced to be the official entry at the Cannes Film Festival this year, the Indian Film Fraternity was elated. The celebrations doubled when legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese was onboarded as the Executive Producer for the film.
Now in conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Neeraj Ghaywan opened up about the surreal experience of receiving detailed feedback on Homebound's screenplay from Martin Scorsese.
The director said, "Well, the notes came in over e-mail, and... and in detail. Because he started out on the script, and he advised me to shave off a lot of the exposition. And, you know, this is the first time I'm writing a full screenplay. So that was a little daunting because every filmmaker wants to say a hundred things in the same film. So those things, and try to put a restraint on some of the arcs that he said may impede your main narrative. Those points were bang on because it helped me, like, pave the screenplay."
Elaborating on how involved Scorsese was in the process, Neeraj Ghaywan added, "We actually went with a very big screenplay, and also during editing, like, he had such wonderful things to talk about. Like say how to make it shorter, make it to the point, and every bit of it. Sometimes it was such disbelief, you know, like to even comprehend that, 'Hello, he is talking about my film.' Of course, we liked Masaan and it was supposed to be released in America. That didn't happen, but I'm glad it happened here. Just like with Karan, even for me, it hasn't sunk in yet. "
Karan Johar too, expressed his delight and admiration for Martin Scorsese. He mentioned how he had met him for the first time at the Berlin Film Festival, in Shah Rukh Khan''s suite. Leonardo Di Caprio was also present and it was a surreal moment.
