Director Apoorva Lakhia, who has made crime films like Shootout at Lokhandwala and Zanjeer, is ready with Haseena Parkar, based on Dawood Ibrahim’s sister with the same name. He asserts that he has not glorified the character in the film and has tried to portray the story of a woman who emerged out of difficult circumstances to become Aapa, as everybody knew Hassena in later part of her life. Here he talks about treatment of the subject, issue of self censorship and working with Shraddha Kapoor.
Excerpts:
How relevant is a biopic like Hassena Parkar in today’s politically charged environment?
I think even the politicians understand that we are filmmakers who are working to entertain people but it becomes over hyped on social media because of the subject.
It is very easy for a person who is sitting 2,500 km away and abusing my film. I see them as cowards. Everybody keeps asking me did I receive any sort of threat from the underworld and I keep telling them that I did not. It is a film about the life of a woman who was not proven guilty in any court of law. I made a film which I thought was interesting with people surrounding me. In the Constitution, it is clearly mentioned that the person is innocent until proven guilty. I think the judgements on the film should also come after the film is screened.
But the question of representation does arise. Also, there is a very thin line between glorification and showing reality…
I have not glorified anyone in the film nor was any intention of doing that. I think there is no thin line. If a person has done certain things in her life and we are showing that, it is not glorification. It shows how her own dreams shattered due to the tragedies that happened to her. That led her to become what some people call a gangster, some a godmother and others a grey character. Can I not make any film that is politically charged or deal with a subject about which some people have certain reservations?
Of course, you can, you have right to self-expression. But do you think at some point of time as a filmmaker you have to exercise self-censorship?
Obviously, you have to self-censor because you have to be a model citizen first. I have a mother, cousins, brothers who have daughters, friends who have daughters and you have to take care of all these factors. My upbringing does not allow me to disrespect or abuse any women and I do not use abusive language in my films. I agree that my films are basically on violent side but they provide clean entertainment. I do not intend to hurt any sentiments. But at the end of the day, we are making a commercial film with songs, the larger than life portrayal, not a documentary.
How different is your treatment of Haseena Parkar from your other films?
It is different. Shootout at Lokhandwala was a pure adrenaline rush film while Zanjeer was a total action film. Haseena Parkar has got more drama than violence. It is a journey of a woman from the age of seventeen to forty-five and in that journey in Mumbai went through lot of changes. After the blasts, she was questioned for 45 days. They did not find any proof against her and she was the only one in the family who stayed back. The film is different as it is a film about a girl who was born in a poor family, her father was a police constable, they were living in a twelve by twelve foot chawl with fourteen of them.
Any recollection of her mannerisms…
I still remember when I first went to her I was two hours late and she made me wait two hours. Sometimes people see (film) industry people as someone not trustworthy as they sometimes dramatise the real events and change some of the facts. People want to be sure in which light you are going to show them. She started trusting me after six-seven months and her family made it easier for me. We met a lot of police persons, looked at a lot of old police files and talking to the family helped in research.
What about films with women as central characters? Tell us about your experience of working with Shraddha Kapoor.
Films made on women as central characters are opening entirely new avenues for filmmakers now. They can tell a story without thinking about other issues. You can now get the heroine and then look for the hero. Shraddha is a good actor and I knew that she can manage the performance. The main advantage was that she can play a seventeen-year-old girl as well as forty-five year old. I watched her performance in Haider which was different from her earlier films and I became a fan while shooting with her.
