With two National Awards in his kitty, it is no wonder Shyam Benegal sees him as a worthy successor. His kind of movies fit the art meets avant-garde meets say-it-hard genre. Dibakar Banerjee says it as it is to Aakriti Bhardwaj
You’ve made movies that appealed to families in the past. But what inspired you to make a movie which could scandalise many?
I did not make family movies. I simply made movies that I wanted to make. It just turned out that my first film was about the triumph of a middle-class family and so the middle-class families all over the country enjoyed it. My second film was about a thief and it was glorifying the thief and his trade. Not only was he stealing, in some ways he was exposing the hypocrisy of the middle-class. “Oye Lucky...” is actually an anti-middle-class film. I know a lot of the audience who had gone to the cinema halls expecting “Khosla...” part-two were slightly taken aback. They didn’t expect “..Lucky” to be the film it was. I don’t think I can claim the happy claim of a family-oriented filmmaker. It’s a film about scandal. But we can get into a very subjective discussion of what is scandalising to you and what is scandalising to me. Something, which describes something as scandalising or shocking is so subjective that beyond a point you really can’t put your finger to it as to whether it is or not. I’m making a film about certain issues which are rampant and prevalent around us in our real life and if those issues are around then a film about the issues can be around. The audience for this film will be the same audience that have enjoyed the earlier two films except that it is an adult film so it is not for kids anymore. For some reason, “Oye Lucky...” was a film that appealed to the kids a lot and I have no idea why. But this film is for adults and a film for those audiences who like new themes, new treatments, and new ways of telling a story. In that respect, it is a film for those who like the new and would like a change from the old. That ways it takes a step forward but I don’t know if my earlier films were made for the family and this one is not. I wouldn’t like to categorise it like that.
How did filmmaking happen? Did your advertising background help you with the kind of films you make?
I was always interested in filmmaking as a child and was an avid film buff. Then, in NID, I was the member of the film club and my exposure and interest in films went up really high. I was exposed to different kinds of cinema. By that time I had made up my mind that I wanted to be a filmmaker. Then I joined advertising and specifically the ad filmmaking side of advertising which kind of worked for me as a training ground. Advertising films actually gave me the practice of how to shoot a scene, how to perform with actors, how to direct actors, how to direct complex physical scenes, to get my hands around the nitty-gritty... That’s what advertising did. Moreover, it helped me exercise my brain continuously because being able to tell a story in 30 seconds is also a very interesting skill. Then I realised when I made my first film “Khosla Ka Ghosla” the crosspollination of the genres had a very salutatory effect on my ad films. My ad film quality went up and the way I was making my films went up. So I find it a mutually nourishing experience.
Shyam Benegal, in an interview with us, had taken your name when asked about who in the current generation had taken after him. What do you have to say to that?
He said that?! I’m very proud of that. I’m proud because when I was a kid watching all kinds of films on Doordarshan, I was most moved by films like “Manthan”. I was eight or nine-years-old when I saw “Manthan”. Also films like “Kalyug” and “Junoon”; I have never seen 1857 revolt brought up like that. Benegal’s “Bhumika”, then Govind Nihalani’s “Aakrosh”, “Tamas”, Ketan Mehta’s “Holi”, “Mirch Masala” and “Bhavni Bhavai”… these are the films that I remember as a kid impacting me through their visuals, images, performances, music. I still remember Naseeruddin Shah’s dialogues from “Manthan” ‘Yeh Sothi humaari hai, sothi humaari hai’, he was talking about the milk problem in the society. I remember Amrish Puri’s dialogues ‘Young man, I made the economy of the country’. So like people remember dialogues from “Sholay”, I remember dialogues from these films. For me, these films are seminal growing up experiences. When the maker of that film says that I am doing something commendable, that’s the biggest reward actually.
You’ve made movies that appealed to families in the past. But what inspired you to make a movie which could scandalise many?
I did not make family movies. I simply made movies that I wanted to make. It just turned out that my first film was about the triumph of a middle-class family and so the middle-class families all over the country enjoyed it. My second film was about a thief and it was glorifying the thief and his trade. Not only was he stealing, in some ways he was exposing the hypocrisy of the middle-class. “Oye Lucky...” is actually an anti-middle-class film. I know a lot of the audience who had gone to the cinema halls expecting “Khosla...” part-two were slightly taken aback. They didn’t expect “..Lucky” to be the film it was. I don’t think I can claim the happy claim of a family-oriented filmmaker. It’s a film about scandal. But we can get into a very subjective discussion of what is scandalising to you and what is scandalising to me. Something, which describes something as scandalising or shocking is so subjective that beyond a point you really can’t put your finger to it as to whether it is or not. I’m making a film about certain issues which are rampant and prevalent around us in our real life and if those issues are around then a film about the issues can be around. The audience for this film will be the same audience that have enjoyed the earlier two films except that it is an adult film so it is not for kids anymore. For some reason, “Oye Lucky...” was a film that appealed to the kids a lot and I have no idea why. But this film is for adults and a film for those audiences who like new themes, new treatments, and new ways of telling a story. In that respect, it is a film for those who like the new and would like a change from the old. That ways it takes a step forward but I don’t know if my earlier films were made for the family and this one is not. I wouldn’t like to categorise it like that.
How did filmmaking happen? Did your advertising background help you with the kind of films you make?
I was always interested in filmmaking as a child and was an avid film buff. Then, in NID, I was the member of the film club and my exposure and interest in films went up really high. I was exposed to different kinds of cinema. By that time I had made up my mind that I wanted to be a filmmaker. Then I joined advertising and specifically the ad filmmaking side of advertising which kind of worked for me as a training ground. Advertising films actually gave me the practice of how to shoot a scene, how to perform with actors, how to direct actors, how to direct complex physical scenes, to get my hands around the nitty-gritty... That’s what advertising did. Moreover, it helped me exercise my brain continuously because being able to tell a story in 30 seconds is also a very interesting skill. Then I realised when I made my first film “Khosla Ka Ghosla” the crosspollination of the genres had a very salutatory effect on my ad films. My ad film quality went up and the way I was making my films went up. So I find it a mutually nourishing experience.
Shyam Benegal, in an interview with us, had taken your name when asked about who in the current generation had taken after him. What do you have to say to that?
He said that?! I’m very proud of that. I’m proud because when I was a kid watching all kinds of films on Doordarshan, I was most moved by films like “Manthan”. I was eight or nine-years-old when I saw “Manthan”. Also films like “Kalyug” and “Junoon”; I have never seen 1857 revolt brought up like that. Benegal’s “Bhumika”, then Govind Nihalani’s “Aakrosh”, “Tamas”, Ketan Mehta’s “Holi”, “Mirch Masala” and “Bhavni Bhavai”… these are the films that I remember as a kid impacting me through their visuals, images, performances, music. I still remember Naseeruddin Shah’s dialogues from “Manthan” ‘Yeh Sothi humaari hai, sothi humaari hai’, he was talking about the milk problem in the society. I remember Amrish Puri’s dialogues ‘Young man, I made the economy of the country’. So like people remember dialogues from “Sholay”, I remember dialogues from these films. For me, these films are seminal growing up experiences. When the maker of that film says that I am doing something commendable, that’s the biggest reward actually.
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