Michael Douglas recalls Ray’s films at IFFI
Film actor, director, and producer Michael Douglas paid homage to Satyajit Ray on Monday, crediting him with "creating the beginning of Indian" cinema. Douglas also reminisced about how Ray significantly influenced him during the earliest days of his career.
Speaking at a press conference during the 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India in Goa, where he is set to receive the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the closing ceremony today, Michael Douglas discussed his upcoming project, "Racing the Monsoon". This film is intended to be a sequel to "Romancing the Stone", Douglas expressed his aspiration to complete the project in India.
"I actually had a history of Satyajit Ray back in college, the 1960s taking a film class and becoming aware of some of his work projects as well as his style and being a renaissance man, I think he sort of created the beginning of the Indian era of filmmaking… but the idea of multiple jobs, he was so many things as an author, music editing, as well as director. So it's a tremendous honour to receive this award," Douglas expressed.
"When I was at the University of California at Santa Barbara. I was taking a film course in 1963. This is about 1964 and one of the directors that we studied a lot was Satyajit Ray. And if I remember correctly, it was a film called 'Pather Panchali' and another called 'Charulata'… But when I realised that he was not only a director, but he was a writer, a filmmaker, a musician and authored books. He was quite an extraordinary man, and also a sense of dealing with people. You would not think of being heroic or large scale but showing a reality and a texture that we had known about all left me with an impression," Douglas elaborated.
Douglas also disclosed his recipe for success as a film producer, emphasising the importance of focusing on the quality of the 'material', "Material, for me, became the most important. I don't care what it is but if it is something that feels emotionally nervous and structured -- for me, a three-act structure is very important -- that's what I count on. So if I'm haunted by it, whether it makes me laugh or cry or sexy or not. Then I analyse it and I see the structure. And so I think that's why I've been fairly successful over the years trying to stick with good material. Although this also my part so much because I'd much rather be a small part and a good movie than a big part in a bad."
"The material is the most important thing. Many actors can play the parts, (what matters is) how good the material is. So I think that's always stuck with me," he said.
Michael Douglas's wife and film actress, Catherine Zeta-Jones, expressed that every time she comes to India, it feels "tingly". She revealed a personal connection to the country, sharing that it was an Indian doctor who performed a tracheotomy on her when she was 18 months old.
"It was an Indian doctor who saved my life with a tracheotomy when I was 18 months old. So I wonder why when I come to India I have this feeling of coming home and this is like my tingly feeling and maybe there's something to do with that, that the reason why I'm actually here is because of the brilliance of an Indian doctor in Swansea, South Wales in the UK, so I'm forever indebted to him," she recollected.
Catherine also expressed her 'regret' about not having had the chance to work on a British-Indian film, adding that one of her favorite movies is "The Lunchbox", starring actor Irrfan Khan, "I've always been a huge fan. And being a singer and a dancer. I dreamed that maybe the British film industry would do a Bollywood-type film and I wouldn't be able to be nice to them. But I would love to be part of something in the Indian industry."