Manish Pandey will be speaking next week at a charity event in London for which PHers can claim a specially discounted ticket price - see below for details. Ahead of that Mike Duff caught up with him to find out more about what went into the making of the groundbreaking Senna documentary and what he's working on next...
"No, although I saw him race twice. First at Brands Hatch in 1986, and then at the British Grand Prix in 1992. That was the time he ran out of fuel right at the end of the race, I think four laps from the end. I was the guest of a motoring magazine and we had an amazing vantage point right at the front of the pits and as he came walking in there was wolf whistling and booing - I thought 150,000 football fans had turned up. He literally walked right past, just a few yards away, and I love kidding myself that we made eye contact and my angst registered with him. But no, that was as close as I ever got."
But you built a very close relationship with his family when you were writing the film?
"Absolutely. I had the privilege of going to pitch the whole story to his sister, who is really the guardian of his legacy, back in March 2006. We had created a 40-minute slideshow presentation with music and the idea was to go through it and talk about what we wanted to do - there were 10 sections, covering all of what was in the film. As we went in I remember thinking 'we're stuffed if there's an IT problem' and, of course, there was - my Mac wouldn't plug into the projection system. She looked at the whole thing on the tiny screen and by the end she was crying, the whole room was so emotional.
"We were saying that we wanted to get into a situation where we could make the film and then we can start talking about rights. She just got up and said 'we're going to make that film with you.' It was incredible, we never lost that trust, that was really integral to the whole project."
The fascination with Senna meant his story had already been told in lots of different ways. Were you confident that you were going to be able to be fresh and different?
"No, not always - you should have seen us when our confidence was low. Right at the beginning we had the structure of the story but lots of people felt it wouldn't work - they were nervous about doing 10 years of his life in the first two acts, which is about 75 per cent of the film, and then slowing it down so we could do the last three days in just 25 minutes. Very early on Asif Kapadia, the director, and I made a very basic movie using just footage from YouTube and other sources, and when we put them together it just worked. It was the eureka moment, we turned to each other and said it's going to work."
Much of the footage came via Formula One, meaning negotiating with Bernie Ecclestone, how was that?
"It was one of the easiest parts of the whole thing. Bernie gave us unbeatable access to Biggin Hill, I still pinch myself that he did it, but I think he knew from the beginning that we weren't going to let him down. He was certainly very clever, he's very, very sharp. The family vouched for us and he pretty much throw the doors open, we had an embarrassment of riches. We were looking through all this glorious footage wondering how we were going to use it all."
Did you expect the overwhelmingly positive critical response?
"We hoped for it, obviously! We treated it like a feature film that didn't need shooting, but had to make sure it was not just for Formula 1 fans. The editing, re-editing, rescripting was exhausting, but when we got to the end we realised it wasn't just about motor racing, it was about heroes doing incredible things.
"I remember we got some of the McLaren mechanics of that era together before it was released. We had a few bottles of wine but we didn't know how they were going to take it, but they said it was like being back there 'do you remember how he always wore that old yellow sweater?', stuff like that. It was then we felt like we'd hit the nail on the head."
And what do you always get asked about the film?
"The big one is 'do you think he knew he was going to die?' I get asked that all the time. The obvious answer, of course, is that I don't know - but I do get the sense that there was something in the air that weekend, if you talk to people who are very rational and who were there they often say the same thing."
And finally what are you working on at the moment?
"I've written a Ferrari project which is in development, that's all I can say at this point. I've also been working on Bentley Boys, which is a fantastic project and was brought to me over a year ago. It's got some amazing producers behind it including Bruce Cohen, who did Silver Linings Playbook, and I'm about to deliver a first draft of that script. It's a gorgeous story, it's all about those first world war fighter pilots who ended up trying to do something in the inter-war period, a group of people who just had nothing to do after the war ended. And the climax of the story is Bentley versus Mercedes and Le Mans - Britain and Germany fighting in France again - it's echoing what has happened and what we know is coming. It's a very deep story, about war, friendship and England. That's what I'd say."
Manish will be sharing further Senna stories at Hexagon Classics' charity evening 'The Life of Ayrton Senna' on Tuesday June 30 at its East Finchley showroom, alongside David Coulthard, Paddy Lowe, Martin Donnelly and Sir Patrick Head. All proceeds go to Great Ormond Street and the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals. See here for more details. If you fancy going Hexagon has very kindly made 20 discounted tickets available to PHers for the evening. These standing tickets include food and drink for just £85 - and of course an evening filled with amazing stories about Senna from some celebrity guests. It’s first come, first served, so email annabel@hexagon.uk.net with the subject line ‘Pistonheads' to snap them up.