I have a right to point finger at a neta, he has no right to crush it
Indranil Roy
Saturday, July 15, 2006 21:50 IST

DNA
Anurag Kashyap




Can the city’s cinema tackle subjects like Tuesday’s train blasts? Writer-director Anurag Kashyap interviewed by Indranil Roy.

How would you describe the city today?
In this city we always talk about unity, Mumbai ek hai. Kidhar ek hai Mumbai? A couple of days after the blast, the film industry organises a candlelight protest and what then? The film industry cannot even have a unified protest and we talk about our unifying spirit.

On the night of the blasts, I saw the mangled bodies at the Cooper Hospital. My assistants who were with me are having nightmares, they cannot sleep at night. I’ve made a film where I have shot with fake dead bodies, but there can never be anything as horrifying as this. A Sardarji kept his chulha burning the entire night, providing daal chawaal to every visitor in Sion hospital..but he’s not even mentioned in the newspapers.

Maybe something is wrong with me. My films (Paanch, Black Friday) don’t get released, I voice my opinions and get into trouble. Am I foolish? Am I too honest?
I’ve been facing the repercussions of being too honest for the last eight years. I cannot take this anymore..I am leaving town tomorrow for peace of mind. But I’ll come back. Mumbai is like a marriage, it’s tough to live through, but you can’t leave it either.

Would you be able to make a film on the train blasts?
It’s impossible to think of making a film immediately. When there’s such a tragedy, it’s better if we impersonate a single man’s tragedy and weave a story around it. It would be easy to make a film keeping the blasts as the backdrop. Right now, I don’t have an objective view of the situation though.

What would be the creative obstacles?
Fundamentally, the freedom of expression. I’m not irresponsible, I would never make a film filled with empty rhetoric. If I make a film, I have to be brutally honest, even take names. For example, in our country if we make a film on the city’s health minister, 100 per cent certain the film will not see the light of day.

After the blasts, Gopinath Munde reprimanded the former commissioner of police MN Singh and the DGP of Maharashtra PS Pasricha for crossing their lines while talking to the media. Why reprimand the officers who speak their mind?

If I make a film on a politician’s misdeeds, he has the option to sue me. But for that he must give people an option to see my film in the first place. If a politician governs me, it’s because I’ve given him the opportunity to do that. So, it is my right to point fingers at him, he has no right to crush my fingers.

Is it becoming increasingly difficult to make a hard-hitting film today?
Of course, in our country people only want to see entertainment. I cannot make a film that’s all entertainment, that’s not my kind of cinema.

What kind of problems do you face?
The problems are not with the filmmakers but the producers. The producers’ lobby feels that filmmakers like me are too emotional, too idealistic. Black Friday wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Mid-day. We need more producers like that.

I see hope when I see younger and talented filmmakers following a road less travelled. Has any film caught the enormity of such tragedies, here or abroad?
A top-of-the-mind-recall would be the recent United 93 on New York’s 9/11 devastation. Then of course, The Battle of Algiers and Shooting Dogs.
indranil_r@dnaindia.net