Loveleen Tandon, co-director and casting director of Slumdog Millionaire

Loveleen Tandon, co-director and casting director of Slumdog Millionaire

Casting her lot

Loveleen Tandon, co-director and casting director of Slumdog Millionaire, is on top of the world after the film won four Golden Globe Awards. However, the road to success has been rough and bumpy. Loveleen reveals all

By Kunal M Shah

Loveleen Tandon

Beginning her career as a radio jockey, to having a marriage that was called off at the last minute and going on to being part of an award-winning Hollywood film, Loveleen Tandon tells the story of  her life; she reveals that all wanted to ever do was to make a film. That time has arrived. She says, "After completing post graduation in Mass Communication, all I wanted to do was to make films. Fortunately, at that time, Mira Nair was working on Monsoon Wedding in Delhi and I went and met her. I started assisting her and did some casting for the film. When she gave me the designation of casting director, I didn't even realise that casting was a specialised field and it would change my life forever. I think I owe it all to Mira."

After Monsoon Wedding, Loveleen soon started getting offers from overseas. She says, "After the release of Monsoon Wedding, I got my first offer from Stephen Spielberg to do the casting for Terminal. That's when I realised that being a casting director is a serious career move, and it would be fun to meet and interact with different directors and actors. After that I did quite a few films including Brick lane and Slumdog Millionaire."

It may be recalled that Loveleen was dating actor Gaurav Chanana and was to marry him. But her marriage had to be called off at the mandap itself before the saat pheras. Speaking about coming out of a personal tragedy, Lovleen says, "I never got married in the first place. It was work that kept me going. I think work is the best medicine."

She adds, "Fortunately, I got two projects immediately after that. One of the projects for which casting was done, is yet to be made. I can't talk about it as it is a very controversial subject to be made by a very well-known foreign filmmaker. The other film was Mira Nair's Migration. Both the films took all my time. So my personal life did not bother me at all."

It is the first time that Loveleen has opened out and spoken about her personal life. Not wishing to talk further on her personal life she says, "You are the first person with whom I am speaking on this topic, I am not very comfortable talking about it. It is just a very positive time and I would be happy without bringing up the topic."

Danny Boyle

Speaking about life after the personal low, Lovleen says, "I was involved with Slumdog right from the beginning and at many levels. I have now enough confidence to make my own film, something that I have always dreamt of. I think my experience of working with so many different directors on interesting subjects has helped me understand my work better. Right from doing my post graduation from Delhi to being a Radio Jockey, the idea of making a film and then being an assistant director to Deepa Mehta on 1947-Earth and my role as casting director, life has been fun. And now I will be doing what I had set out for, that is, to make my own film."

Finally speaking about Slumdog Millionaire, her ticket to Hollywood, she says, "On the last day of Migration, I got a call from Tabrez Noorani who is the line producer to meet these people. I was on my way back to Delhi when I met the producer Paul Ritchi and Christian Colson. I loved them from the word go and they gave me a script to read. I read the script on the flight to Delhi. And before I landed at the Delhi airport, I had made up my mind about doing the film. I was pretty sure that Danny would direct it in a fantastic style."