Showman Subhash Ghai, who has had countless mega hits in the 80s and 90s and has given some memorable films, lamented that pressures from big studios are resulting in ‘lifeless cinema’ these days.

Ghai, along with some of those associated with his 1999-released film ‘Taal’, featuring Aiswariya Rai, Anil Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna, interacted with the media yesterday at Goa on the sidelines of the 55^th International Film festival of India (IFFI) on the 25^th anniversary of the film, which is also credited to have been ahead of its time in terms of marketing — it pre-sold the music and broadcasting rights before the film’s release to recover a major portion of the investments made.

Those accompanying Ghai included singer Kavita Krishnamurthy and actor Jividha Sharma.

“Music, composition, acting, costume all was in sync with each other in this movie (‘Taal’) because I was not under pressure from any big studios who finance films these days, neither was I running behind box office figures,” Ghai said during the media interaction yesterday in Goa, according to an official statement put out by the IFFI organisers.

He added: “When a director is overly worried about the finances of the film it will definitely eat into his focus on directorial work.”

“Certain films have a long life and they resonate with audiences. When you are feeling down, you would want to watch a movie like ‘Taal’”, said lead actor of the movie Anil Kapoor in a video message.

“Subhash Ghai is the Master Showman of the industry who created many magnum opus. We should all watch ‘Taal’ to understand Shri Ghai’s vision about the big screen,” added Saurabh Shukla, who had also acted in the film, through a video message.

‘Taal’ was the first Indian film to break into Variety’s top 20 box-office list. Ghai, while narrating how he convinced A. R Rahman to compose music for this film, said he told Rahman: “I want to make this musical film. That means you are the hero of my film and I am its director.”

Ghai gave more insights into his vision for the movie saying that the lead character of the girl goes through seven stages of development till the film comes to an end, symbolizing the seven ‘surs’ (musical notes) that are associated with this film.

The film shows the struggle between the purity of love represented by Khanna and the material world represented by Kapoor, Ghai elaborated.

Kavita Krishnamurthy said she practised for hours at stretch to get that perfect tone.