Jackky Bhagnani: I would pay any amount for oxygen; I would also kill for it

Jackky Bhagnani’s last acting venture ‘Welcome To Karachi’ may have tanked, but his upcoming short film ‘Carbon’ seems to be making up for all the failures. With a unique story to narrate, Jackky Bhagnani seems to be back with a bang. It is a story that revolves around the most important thing that one needs to survive and that is ‘Oxygen’. Fifty years from now on, people will have to pay for oxygen, and ones who can’t, their fate will vanish in carbon. This is the powerful story of his short film that also delivers a message.

As the short film is nearing its releasing, Jackky exclusively revealed to us that one thing that triggered him to take up a subject like this.

Excerpts from the interview…

The trailer of your short film ‘Carbon’ has received a good response. What would you like to say about it?
I’m humbled and grateful that the film has received such a great response; also thankful to all the people who’ve given it so much love.

What was that one thing that made you take up this short film?
Last year, when the smog hit Delhi there were a lot of reports and photographs doing rounds; I saw a picture of a 4-year-old child going to school with a mask and that just hit me like a bullet that this child isn’t responsible for this environmental scenario, it is a situation that we and our forefathers have created on this planet and that is what inspired me to make this short film to create awareness among people about global warming. (Also Read: The trailer of short film ‘Carbon’ is damn interesting)

Your short film is set in 2067. Do you really feel that after 50 years lack of oxygen will be a big problem on earth?
Yes. As a matter of fact, the original idea was to set the film in 2047, but we thought it’s just too close and people might not buy it even though it is actually already happening around the world; in China there are many cities where people wear mask and travel, in cities like Shanghai it’s like smoking 2 packets of cigarettes a day.

So I’m pretty sure that there are high chances of lack of oxygen being a big problem by 2067, maybe even before that; hence we took the 50 years leap.

If by chance it happens that oxygen is available by paying money, how much would you be ready to pay for it?
Oxygen being the basic necessity of survival I would pay any amount for it; I would also kill for oxygen and that’s the whole point of this film. If oxygen is scarce on the planet and I need to buy it I would go to any means to get it; won’t we all?

How was the experience of working with a versatile actor like Nawazuddin Siddiqui?
It was a dream come true. I’ve been a huge fan of Nawaz Bhai; I’ve loved his work in ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Badlapur’, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ and ‘Raees’. He is a great actor, he has given a lot of time of his life to this craft and it was really generous of him to do this film for me. I reached out to him when he was shooting for ‘Munna Michael’ in Goregaon and in just a meeting of 5 minutes, he agreed to do this film. He told me that my thought and approach is great, more than anything my intention is honest and for that he will be there and he fulfilled his commitment to me. We shot for a day with him for ‘Carbon’ and it was a memorable experience.

Unfortunately, you didn’t have a great run at the box office with your movies. Was that the reason you shifted your gears to digital platform?
It has got nothing to do with my success or failure and digital platforms have got nothing to do with shifting gears because I feel the lines are getting blurred for actors, directors, producers, etc; as long as you’re doing good work which people like, you could be doing it on any platform. Also I will still continue to do feature films.

There are a lot of talks about nepotism of late. What’s your take on it?
I think many senior people have given their take on nepotism and I’m still a very small fish in the pond, so I think I would not want to comment on this.

Lastly, would you like to tell us something about your projects apart from ‘Carbon’?
I’ve got a lot in store! Will speak about it when the time’s right.