Jaskunwar Kohli’s Zero Se Restart, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video India, gave several insights into the making of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 2023 seminal underdog tale 12th Fail. It’s a deep dive into how Chopra had to start everything from scratch after going on floors, from the production design to the style of filming.
However, there’s one aspect that the documentary doesn’t capture — how Chopra almost quit directing 12th Fail on the second day of shoot itself. In the latest edition of Creator x Creator on SCREEN, Kohli sat down with Chopra and discussed this episode.
“It was not possible to put this story in the film because it was so dark,” said Kohli.
“I remember the exact words you said: ‘Guys, I don’t want to put up with this. I just want to go back home to my dogs and sit with them because I’m so sad right now.’ That was the only time in my life I’ve seen you this close to actually breaking down,” he added.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra blamed it on the crew of 12th Fail, which was “so mediocre on that day.”
“This can only happen on a Hindi movie set. That day, I remember clearly, after taking the shot, I went to check the shot on the monitor, there was no sound. So I asked this guy, ‘Hey, where’s the sound?’ He said, ‘Nahi sir, ismein sound nahi aata (No sir, there’s no sound in the monitor).’ Sound nahi aata (There’s no sound)? How am I going to direct this film?,’” recalled Chopra.
“Because there are directors that guy must’ve worked with who don’t give a damn about the sound in the shot. They just say, ‘Ho gaya, aage chalo (this is done, let’s move on).’ Then I realized why the hell am I doing it, ya?,” the filmmaker said, adding, “I was so frustrated that I wanted to quit 12th Fail and come back home. Because how do you make a film without a crew that’s not efficient?”
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Vidhu Vinod Chopra recalled “fortunately” after his “gaali-galauch” (cursing) on set that day, everything fell into place the next day. “You’d said, ‘I’ve come back after listening to a Taylor Swift song,” Kohli made Chopra recall in the conversation. They were referring to Swift’s song from her 2017 album Reputation, “Look What You Made Me Do.” In the song, Swift sings, “I’m sorry, but the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, ’cause she’s dead.”
“You said, ‘The old Vinod is dead. From today, I’ll just have a happy face.’ If someone used to a do a mistake on set, everybody would freeze ki ab padegi (now, we’d get a thrashing). But you’d walk forward and say, ‘I’ll not scream (zips his mouth). Just don’t do it again,’” recalled Kohli.
