Your central characters are original, not based on anyone in particular. But because you said they live in a world populated by V Shantaram and Guru Dutt, do the legends make passing appearances in your film?
A bit. You know, you suddenly catch Raj Kapoor passing by, somebody makes a comment on it. Guru Dutt and Johnnie Walker could be standing in the background. There are small references like that.
For instance, one of the characters is a Bengali director, who is like many Bengali directors of that time, passionate and independent but sometimes compromising knowingly and making one kind of film at one time and then switching completely to another: like Bimal Roy making Do Bigha Zameen and then making Madhumati.
People pass by, and you see the characters react to them. There are a lot of references, not just in terms of people, but sets and props and songs.
Now when you are making a film of this era, wouldn't you rather be tempted into making a Guru Dutt biopic?
I'm afraid of biopics. And of rumours. I don't know who Guru Dutt was actually, I just know him through his films. And some people claim to know who he was but some people claim to know me today, but they don't. So how does anybody know him? How can I make that biopic then? Fiction is often more truthful.
I'm very afraid of the words 'based on a true story.' Boss, nothing is based on a true story. It's all an interpretation of an idea. Even a documentary is lying by inclusion and omission. When I place my camera on a person at the area of a disaster, how do I know whether he's reacting to the truth or to my camera?
So if you understand the essence of it all, you can be more truthful via fiction. I think, for example, Bandit Queen is not a film about Phoolan Devi. It is about a girl in those circumstances, where a script has been laid down for her life, and she doesn't agree with her script, and she writes her own script. I don't know how close to the real Phoolan Devi that is, I'm half from Madhya Pradesh and I've heard different stories. There are various ways of looking at her story.
I met Phoolan Devi at the screening of Bandit Queen and she told me, 'no no this is not how it happened.' But I don't care. Bandit Queen is a great film because it takes the idea of Phoolan and then creates a world and makes a film.
In the picture: A still from Madhumati
Also Read: Soha's new turn in Khoya Khoya Chand
Advertisement
