'It Is a Long Fight'

THE MAGAZINE SPOTLIGHT M5 India Abroad May 30, 2014 ÂI feel PEOPLE need to WAKE UPÊ 3M3 audience. They only care about the local Manoj Bajpayee in a scene from audience. Hindi filmmakers want to reach I don’t think I am a child of Tarantino. I Gangs of Wasseypur. out to a larger audience and so they may think I am a child of Scorsese who fanta - have a western way of storytelling. sizes about Tarantino. In Gangs of Wasseypur 2 . How did you But I think there is a new generation – I decide how far you would go with the vio - call them the generation of Torrents. They lence? had no money in their pocket, but they It’s based on a true story. The man was wanted to have access to cinema from the killed with 700 bullets and when the police world, which our country and distributors came to pick up the body, the hand just would never release. And Torrents gave came off. They had to eventually pick up them access to it. the body with shovels. They refused to do You go down to Tamil Nadu and see the the postmortem. incredible movies being made there. This Even Manoj Bajpayee’s killing in the first generation is changing cinema. That is also part is inspired by real life. Munawar Khan now happening in Hindi films. And was shot just like that and he went on a Tarantino wasn’t the only one making vio - rickshaw with a bullet in his head. He died lent films. They started watching Korean in the rickshaw. And it happened at a mar - and Chinese films. ketplace. So it was all a recreation of what But it is true that post- Pulp Fiction , sud - actually happened. denly many people started playing with I just made it more dramatic and cine - structure a lot. And Tarantino being a geek, matic. he empowered the geeks who are making The reality is that violence is power. The the best films now. whole beheading actually took place in the But are these films organic to Indian sto - marketplace as people were walking rytelling? around. There is more Indian story telling in You spoke about off-screen violence. In regional cinema. What Marathi cinema is Michael Haneke’s Funny Games there is a doing is real India. And what Tamil cine - scene where the kids are being beaten up, ma is doing is - portions of it are hard to but you don’t see the violence, you hear the deal with, when see you works of sound and the blood splashing. Vetrimaaran or Sasikumar’s That is actually more violent. Because the Subramaniapuram , they are talking It’s different with Hindi films because influenced by the West, barring a human mind is much more imaginative about a South India, which is obsessed, that cinema has become more urban and Tigmanshu Dhulia who is very rooted. and darker than what we see on the screen. with cinema and at the same time they most of the Hindi filmmakers write in Also unlike Hindi filmmakers Tamil And people are bothered by their own pos - have violence in their everyday life. English. So their films tend to be more directors are not aware of an international sibilities. n of placing an anti-smoking message on the ‘It is a screen during the cigarette scene. He filed a com - plaint against the censor board in long fight’ the courts, argu - ing the message wasn’t necessary Anurag Kashyap laments because the actor was holding an the Indian film censor unlit cigarette. “Nobody in board’s interference with India, neither the government creative freedom. nor the judiciary, cares for cine - Arthur J Pais listens in ma,” Kashyap said. “Whatever here were little children watching this film,” work we do, it’s “T an anguished mother said after the screening not taken seri - of Anurag Kashyap’s gritty drama of moral ously by anyone. A scene from Nagesh Kukunoor’s Lakshmi. The film’s Indian release was stalled in January after it ran into corruption Ugly at the New York Indian Film Festival. trouble with the censor board. It finally released in India March 21. It’s a joke. So it’s “They will surely have nightmares. Even I will find diffi - a long fight.” cult to get over this dark film. ” have money, he said. “Greed lures. Even those who do Filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor agreed with a bitter Kashyap, in conversation with NYIFF director Aseem not have anything to do with the kidnapping suddenly laugh that it was bad enough to raise money to make a Chhabra, said he did not consider his characters dark. begin exploiting the situation.” film like Lakshmi and see it stalled because of censor They were complex, he said adding each of us have Over the years, Kashyap has had many problems with issues. moral complexities. the Central Board of Film Certification — India’s regu - The film missed its January 17 Indian premiere date He also recalled how kidnapping of children is wide - latory film body — but in Ugly, a scene with an unlit because its daring subject matter of child prostitution spread across India, and his story had drawn from real cigarette at the end of the film, caused trouble. and human trafficking, caused problems with the cen - life incidents. When the parents of a kidnapped child Kashyap refused to follow the government’s mandate sor board. It finally released March 21 in India..

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