Faiza had read about the quaint town called Malegaon, she had heard that they re-make classics and localise the content.
To Faiza, Malegaon was a confluence of contradiction. In the 12 sq. km town, communal division is as cutting as the river running through it. Hindus and Muslims flank either banks of the river; the small town is in an economically bad shape and experiences 12-hour power cuts. But in all this, there is a searing presence of Bollywood and a bizarre film industry that churns out two to three films in a month. Documentary film-maker Faiza Ahmad Khan brings out the charm of the town, Malegaon, where films offer resonate the wage-worker’s wish to live out a fantasy. The hour-long documentary is finally seeing a nation-wide release through PVR’s Director’s Rare section on a commercial platform after four years since its completion. A film made in seven months and made on a budget of 24 lakhs, sponsored by Mediacorp in Singapore, NHK in Japan and KBS in South Korea, Faiza says that the response to the film has exceeded her expectations, “It’s been around for four years and now it’s running in theatres for the second week in Mumbai and Pune, it’s exciting,” she says. Faiza hopes to release the film in Hyderabad by the end of July this year.
While working on a feature film, Anwar back in 2007, Faiza came across the idea. “These guys in Malegaon are passionate about movies, they take up popular films and remake them with localised content,” she says. Nasir Khan told her about his re-make of Superman and Faiza decided to make her own film. For the uninitiated, Nasir Khan has directed many Malegaon based films, he owns a video parlour and also shoots weddings in Malegaon. The idea was to observe and not interfere with what’s happening there, says Faiza. Approaching people for the film wasn’t too difficult she claims. “TV crews and journalists had already done many stories. By the time we approached them, they were more than welcoming. People of Malegaon are generally ‘filmy’ so they were conscious of the camera, but they eased up,” says Faiza.
Talking about indie films, Faiza says that there was a heavy Bollywood phase and fortunately it’s a mix of both now. She believes that there was always an audience for ‘different kind of cinema’, “Those people would watch it on a DVD or download it on torrents. We don’t need an audience, we need distributors who take initiatives and make it a regular feature and not something you screen once and forget about,” says Faiza.
Faiza is currently busy working on a documentary on the Golibar slum in suburban Mumbai which is being demolished illegally. In essence it is a story of land grabbing — something that is happening all over the country. Like Supermen of Malegaon , this documentary of hers also relies heavily upon the narrative that includes little details. “The story is what moves the film forward, whatever you wish to convey, you convey as part of your narrative,” says Faiza.
She admits that it is difficult to keep activism and film-making separate, “Your job is to observe but it gets increasingly difficult to not tread the past of activism. A lot of times the film may have suffered because I get too involved,” she signs off.
