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A film will find its own audience: Srijit Mukherji

BY Shayani Mukherjee3 Sept 2016 1:26 AM IST
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">In movies, we enter a world that’s entirely the reflection of a director’s imagination, and there are only a few who can strike the right chord, making them linger on our minds even after the usual duration. Having drawn inspiration from a variety of fields such as literature, painting, movies, and music, he has emerged as one of the most innovative filmmakers of the age who managed to enthrall us with his very first film 'Autograph.' Mukherji has changed the course of Bangla film industry with films like Jaatishwar, Baishe Srabon, Chotushkone, Rajkahini, Hemlock Society, Mishawr Rawhoshyo among several others and has given his audience the scope to reflect on cinema that goes beyond the 70 mm screen.
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Who or what inspired you to make films?  
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">There are lots of influences, and it’s tough to name a few. Watching a lot of films since childhood was the first step towards it. I have always wanted to express my stories, my characters, and my alternate universe on the screen.
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Some of the filmmakers who I look up to are obviously stalwarts like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, and Rituparno Ghosh. I love watching films of Spielberg, Woody Allen, Nolan, Scorsese among several others. I also look forward to movies made by contemporary Hindi filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bharadwaj, and Dibakar Banerjee. All of these people in their way have inspired me to take up the onus of telling my stories through films. In the non-filmmaking domain, it is the musical maestros, the last of whom would be Kabir Suman. His music inspired me in the early 90s.
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">It is evident that a director plots out each of his films very carefully. Does it ever happen that actors get in the way, and you have trouble with them?  
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">I genuinely feel that films are a director’s medium and theater's are an actor’s so at the end of the day whoever might be the actor or the director, it is the director’s duty to kind of fashion the character out of an actor. However, he might not succeed in all cases.
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Yes, it has happened with me where in some films the characters which I have envisaged have come out better and in some not as much. So it mainly depends on the performance of an actor and film as a whole.
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What is that one thing you keep in mind while making movies?  <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">A lot of people say that my films are 'very well packaged' and that is something I never consciously do. I think targeting the audience should not be the priority of filmmakers because the taste of the public differs. As a result, if you target one section you will miss out on the other. So I suggest that one should focus on himself as if he's the films’ first audience member.  After that, it is luck and hope for a happy coincidence. Mostly, this shouldn’t matter to a filmmaker because he should satisfy himself first.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Movie reviews and critics have increased in number because people voice their opinions on social media platforms. So in such a case what happens is that before you watch the movie and interpret it in your way, you are already informed by someone else’s opinion. So does that affect the aura of the film?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Not really. Word of mouth is quite significant for this industry. People who love the movie spread a positive word of mouth and unlike Bollywood; Bengali film industry doesn’t have crores stashed for publicity. Hence, we have to rely on social media as our only recourse where we advertise our films to the point of being narcissistic because those platforms act as the market. After we are done making the movie, it is handed over to the marketing team for further promotions. In this aspect, social media is incredibly useful, especially in the case of regional industries like Bengal.
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">However, anyone and everyone is a film critic nowadays. What one needs is just an internet connection. It obviously has a downside to it as under cover of anonymity one might get personal and downright dirty. But that is something which comes with the good and at the end of the day, nothing matters apart from the merit of the movie.<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> 
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">How important is the language of image, besides actors and dialogues, since the story’s thread is tied with the images and has to have sync but otherwise when you are photographing, what plays on your mind?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">For me nothing is isolated, it comes together. Every scene has many driving forces. In some scenes, the image might be the driving force and in some, the dialogue. In fact, silence and music also take turns to act as the driving force. But I believe a scene is the culmination of all these factors. While the language of an image is critical, I would not put it as the most prominent factor. I think even if the image isn’t that great, a scene can succeed by sheer performance or by the sheer brilliance of its musical treatment.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">What are the deciding factors while you cast your actors? <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">I have gone for both experimental casting where there is a challenge for the director to extract performance out of an actor who conventionally would not be thought of, while you think of a particular character; as well as gone for apt casting as per traditional wisdom where a lot of hard work gets saved. In this case, you know you have a bunch of favourite actors who can pull off a particular range of characters, and you go to them. In some cases, we also try out new faces who can bring something new to the table.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Movies do not always receive the same of kind of appreciation. In your case, how do you deal with it?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Luckily out of the eight movies that I have released, six have been super hits. Among the other two, one of them did extremely well at the national awards, and the other one has been rated as my best. People say it is a little ahead of its time. 
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">My films have also won over 130 awards and travelled to around 30 film festivals in both India and abroad. So I have encountered success in some form or the other till now, and not faced the trough.<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Frankly speaking, when I’m done making a film, I move on to make the next one. I don’t analyze its success or failure. I try to correct if any mistake or portions were overdone by watching the film over and over again. Audience reception is something I love, but if it doesn’t come naturally, I don’t lose my sleep because I have made movies with utmost honesty and exactly the way I wanted. So, given the constraints and resource crunch, all eight of my films have satisfied me to varying degrees. I own all my films equally, and it’s not very difficult to handle the lack of appreciation for a movie when rest of your movies make up for it.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">         <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Your opinion on the Censor Board?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">My experience with the Board has been very weird. I expected a lot of objections when I went with Baishe Shrabon, but they passed it without a single cut. On the contrary, they objected to a couple of words like ‘corruption’ and ‘ruthless army rule in Manipur’ in Hemlock... I felt it was gagging. Following that, I had a long run with them during Rajkahini, but ultimately they let it pass without cuts. 
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">The fallacy lies in the fact that they censor portions whereas their work is only to certify as the name suggests <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">their work should only stick to certify as the name suggests. However, my overall experience with the Regional Censor Board has been much rosier than the usual image of that Board at the national level.<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> 
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Has there been any incident/instance where you have felt that you cannot come up with something new?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I haven’t had such an experience till now. I’m sitting with five scripts right now and yet to decide which one to start with. I have never been out of ideas or out of subjects to make films on. In fact, I’m impregnated with ideas all too soon and all too frequently. Hence, so many babies.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Why are you shifting your base to Bombay?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">For the greed of a greater audience but not at the cost of my aesthetics and the way I want to tell my stories.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">How do you think documentaries and short films can be made more acceptable or acknowledged by this generation, apart from long reel cinema?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Film festivals of documentaries and short films need to be popularized further but with the advent of digital technology, I think it is already being democratized to an enormous extent. A lot of people and a lot of celebrity directors like Sujoy Ghosh, Imtiaz Ali, and Anurag Kashyap have started making short films which I think is setting the trend.
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">How do you perceive the future of Bangla Cinema?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">I like to do stuff and not ponder over how things ought to be in future. I want to contribute to the industry as much as I can. It’s tackling a diverse variety of subjects right now and has been doing good given the resource constraint. Like other sectors, it has its share of problems but nothing overwhelming as such. We need to up the game when it comes to capacity and not let it shrink any further because of the tight budget that we have to work on. Although there is a lot of variety in the industry, we are still missing out on certain genres. I hope capacity increases as it would solve this problem.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Nowadays people don’t go to movie theaters so much, especially when it comes to Bangla films. They prefer downloading and watching them at home. How badly do you think it affects the industry?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">It does, hugely. One of the reasons why a Bengali movie is not even close to the same commercial or financial bracket as that of a Tamil or a Telegu or a Punjabi film is because of the ‘download-happy-tech-savvy’ audience. But now that torrents have been banned, and punitive measures against these sites are being taken, it will help Bangla movies to regain its momentum.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">What are some of your future projects that we are likely to see...<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Begum Jaan starring Vidya Balan and Naseeruddin Shah will be releasing next year in March. Zulfikar, which is a double adaption of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra set in the backdrop of the shipping mafia in Kolkata, has been planned for October. Besides, there are a couple of other projects in my hands. I’m also doing the first 3D Bangla film Kakababu which we start shooting from April 2017.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Which one is your best movie so far?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">It’s like asking to choose between your children. Jaatishwar, Baishe Srabon, Chotushkone, Rajkahini, and Hemlock Society would be my top five.
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;"> <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Message for the upcoming filmmakers…<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; background-color: #ffffff;">Don’t try to target the audience. Your films, your aesthetics, your perception will find its audience. Listen to your heart, tell your stories honestly, don’t compromise, and you will find your pot of gold at the end of your rainbow.
Shayani Mukherjee

Shayani Mukherjee


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