“I Do Not Want to Avoid the Political . . .”

Sudhanva Deshpande, actor and director with the Jana Natya Manch and editor at LeftWord Books, speaks to the filmmaker Shoojit Sircar in a collaborative production by Newsclick and the Indian Cultural Forum. Sircar begins the talk by explaining how he scrapes through a rather conventional film industry like Bollywood with unconventional stories. He also speaks of the independent, working woman in his films and also credits his scriptwriter Juhi Chaturvedi, for many of her insights into building these female characters. He is cautious to mention, however, that these characters – though unconventional in mainstream Bollywood cinema - are not fictitious, and makes a claim to the lived reality of India; you will find such people in Lajpat Nagar and Darya Ganj, he says.  Taking a note of the fact that at least two of his films are located in scenes of conflict (Yahaan and Madras Cafe), he says that avoiding the political is not a move he'd like to make. He also does not view himself, and the directors of his ilk, any different from the long tradition of alternative filmmaking that has existed India from the days of Bimal Ray. What has changed is that such films, which previously would only be screened in one orphan theatre, can now find a release in several multiplexes. As far as the question of film certification is concerned, he feels surprised that his films were passed by the film certification board.  However, when his own film Madras Cafe was banned from being screened in Tamil Nadu, he made efforts to engage in a dialogue with those who had objected to the film. Dissenting through dialogue and debate is fine, he feels, but stopping another person from watching a film, to which you have taken offense, cannot be allowed.