He came, he charmed and won over minds with his felicity for selling heart warming ideas. That is Shekhar Kapur at the ongoing 45th International Film Festival of India in Panaji. Presenting creativity as an act of chaos at his Masterclass, Kapur showed how its expression is an act of discipline. He says there is nothing wrong in saying ‘I don’t know’ for between a creative idea and action there is procrastination and doubt. “Art exists in contradiction. Storytelling is nothing but moral contradiction. There is nothing wrong in telling lies as long as your whole being is into it. After all creative people are said to be living in an alternate reality.”
With his “Paani”, to be produced by Yash Raj Films, constantly being delayed, there is news of him signing a fantasy adventure based on Colleen Houck’s novel “Tiger’s Curse”. Isn’t it time to deliver something concrete?
“Paani is taking so much of time because it is a visionary film and a producer has to believe in my vision. It is not a subject that they do casually and say chalo isme Aamir ko le lo ,” says Kapur sitting at the scenic lounge of Marriott Hotel. “Set in future it is a completely visionary cinema that Indians can look up to. It is about imminent water crises and with the current developments in China, it has made the subject all the more relevant. “Indian films were not about just entertainment. We have had films which people were in awe of. The choice is between making ‘Happy New Year’, ‘Bang Bang’ and ‘Dhoom’ or ‘Paani’. It is their choice. If they don’t want to make it they should just tell me. There are enough people sitting in the West to fund ‘Paani’. I always wanted to make ‘Paani’ out of India because I resented the fact that ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ wasn’t an Indian film. We keep getting happy that we have the 300 crore club. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ managed to make 1500 crores worldwide. Aap to teen sau mein phanse hai . ‘Life of Pie’ was an Indian story. We keep on conjecturing which is the biggest international grosser from India. It came 12 years ago as ‘Monsoon Wedding’. None of these big star cast films have been able to match it.” Kapur says he wants to move away from the unnecessary usage of dialogues and let the visuals speak. “In the first 30 pages of ‘Paani’ there are only 7 lines and this is hard to sell.”
To the audience or the producer? “Passing the buck to the audience is a lame excuse. It is like saying we can’t do anything as India is a corrupt country. That’s how we are. Our films mirror ourselves, and not the audience. If you think ‘Happy New Year’ reflects the state of our audience then we should stop every voter from voting. Those films don’t reflect the audience, they reflect the filmmaker and the actor in it. After watching such films the audience says so that’s who you are.”
He is also seen as the director of “Mr. India” and auteur of “Bandit Queen”. “I was the same person. It was just that I made ‘Mr. India’ with an 11-year-old sitting next to me in mind. When Amrish Puri asked me how to play Mogambo I said like Shakespeare. He was aghast. Then I said play it like Shakespeare for an 11-year-old who has not heard about the Bard and he got the tone right.”
“Bandit Queen”, he says, was a reaction to his inability, his ignorance to react to what happened to Phoolan Devi. I felt where I was when all this was happening. I felt like a rapist myself. And it is this anger and guilt which reflects in the film, which sometimes make people give up on the film in the first 10 minutes. Offloading my guilt was a large part of how ‘Bandit Queen’ turned out.”
At the same time Kapur avers there is no link between emotional integrity and the money a film makes. “Five scenes of emotional honesty make a good film. I don’t think ‘Dhoom 3’ has even one such scene but it is the biggest blockbuster of Hindi cinema.”
Miffed with the star culture, Kapur says, “Ultimately, no film survives because of big name. If a film has to survive generations it will survive on its craft and content. Today ‘Masoom’ and ‘Bandit Queen’ survive because of the overall films they were and not who starred in them. Today, they just look for first weekend. Our stars are killing the film business with the kind of salaries that they demand. There is very little left to spend on research and development. They don’t care for the shelf life. How the future generations will judge us, from Bang Bang and Dhoom ?”
The dark theme of Tiger’s Curse which is about a young girl — having strong connections with a cursed Indian tiger — is a continuation of the vampire-laden content of Hollywood for teenagers. “It is partly because for all these years nobody allowed them to explore their dark side. You had to watch all these Disney stories. What is happening though is kids are seeing the world that has been created for them and it is a pretty dark world that we have created. They are looking for films that represent what is happening in the world. I have a 14-year-old daughter. She goes to the Internet and is aware of whatever happens. You can’t hide anything anymore. These dark characters have become metaphors for them to understand this world because they have understood there is a dark side.” On the mythical Indian connection, Kapur says these are a series of New York Times bestsellers. “It is their point of view. It is not going to be an in-depth look at Indian mythology.”
As for conflict with Paani , he says, “In my experience every director has one or two projects at one time and they don’t have conflict. I believe Paani will come out first. Yash Raj has shown right intent by backing films like Byomeksh Bakshy and Titli . I hope it continues with Paani ,”
Masterstrokes by Kapur
At his masterclass, Shekhar Kapur said there in nothing wrong in selling lies as long as your entire being is into it. When one asked him if it were true for a politician as well, the filmmaker, known for his political tweets, responded, “So what did Gandhiji did. He told himself a story that this is how he is going to get India Independence. That became his truth and because his truth succeeded we worship him. Imagine his truth had not succeeded and we would have been still ruled by the British what do you think our history books would have described him as. As a charlatan, a rebel who got so many people killed? He succeeded and today he is our hero.
Today Narendra Modi is telling his truth. Had he said to somebody when he was selling tea that one day he will become the prime minister everybody would have called him a mad man. But he passionately believed in it and today he is leading the country as one of the most exciting prime ministers that we have had. Hopefully, his story has not ended here. Hopefully, his story is much bigger than just becoming a prime minister. I don’t think the country’s future depends on bringing Barack Obama to Republic Day parade but it shows how seriously the world is taking Narendra Modi. We heard that he only appealed to Indian diaspora but Obama is not Indian diaspora.”
