Sunil Babbar is one of the few directors whose debut Indian English film won accolades and honours in world cinema bazaar. Sunil Babbar, who got international acclaim for his English movie 'Ants', started bilingual feature film 'The Party' that, would reflect upon the condition and the direction of the youth in the country. The Party has everything in it from jazzy music to thumping dance numbers and from fun games to free flow of liquor, said Babbar whose 'Ants' not only grabbed 'Best Foreign Film' award in the Yellowstone International Film Festival in the US in 2002 but also earned him the 'Producere of the Year' award in the general category. . It is a bi-lingual in English as well as Hindi, being produced under the banner of Pami Films. The Muhurat of the film took place at Club Aquaria, at Borivli, Mumbai. A steamy hot song and dance number was also shot with the film's heroine Akshita and hero Ishan. The song was about 'Jab aag lage paani mein (When water is on fire)'. The costumes of the heroine did full justice to these words and she sizzled in them. The song is written and composed by Atul Sharma, choreographed by Paramveer, and sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Kunal Ganjawala.
According to the producer director Sunil Babbar, the story of 'The Party' is about what happens in the night of a party of old students, organised on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of their school, that starts at ten in the night and goes on till the wee hours. During the course of the party a girl is raped. A lot of other incidents follow. The strange thing is that everyone in the party knows who the rapist is, but they refuse to divulge this information out of fear. It also starts a chain reaction of distrust among old friends and colleagues. The film is about inter-personal relationships, and how courage, morality, and human values lose their meaning in certain circumstances. It is also a film about the hypocrisy of the society that comes to the fore after the incident of rape.
The film will be shot mostly in a discotheque near Chandigarh. Some parts will be shot in Mumbai and Himachal Pradesh as well. Ishan Kakaria, the hero of the film, is from Australia but of Indian origin. Babbar had met Ishan in New York and had decided to cast him in the film. Akshita Agnihotri is Ms. Beauty Queen of Chandigarh. Babbar saw her in one of the parties and caste her as the heroine of the film. It is her first film. Pratap Singh Fauzdar and Khyali Sarhan of the Laughter Challenge are among other artistes.
While explaining the situation of the song that was being filmed, Babbar said that the hero meets the heroine during the party. They are lost in each other and imagine themselves in a situation where the heroine is trying to seduce the hero. Music plays a very important role in the film. We have a combination of medleys, rock, and Sufiana music here. Since the party has people of all ages, old as well as young, we needed to have such variety. There are six songs in the film.
On being asked the reasons for making 'The Party' in Hindi as well as English whereas his first film ' Ants' was only in English, Babbar says that 'Ants' was primarily made for the Hollywood market. He feels that a film in Hindi as well as English makes a lot of commercial sense. You reach all kinds of audiences in this process. Though he is used to Hollywood way of film making, which means better organisation, planning, and discipline, he feels that making a Bollywood film is an interesting and challenging experience as a filmmaker.
What does Suneel Babbar think of the new age of cinema? He says that a lot of experimental films are being made. The film audiences of all varieties, multiplex as well as suburban, are looking for new and exciting films. They understand cinema very well. My kind of cinema is a combination of experimentation and commerce.
