Three years ago,budding filmmaker Anand Gandhi,in an interview with The Indian Express shared the theme of his next project. Its called Ship of Theseus or Theseus Ka Jahaj,and its a philosophical paradox based on the story of the Greek god Theseus who built a huge ship. As its parts got replaced over the years,there came a time when it became difficult to identify the original piece of work. My film probes this question in the context of the human body. What happens when you disintegrate a human body? Does it change or remain the same?, Gandhi had said. Three years later,ready with his film,Gandhi,along with filmmaker Kiran Rao and UTV,has come up with an interesting campaign. It tows the same line as crowd sourcing,converting this one into a crowd voting of sorts. A master plan,courtesy Rao,the campaign running currently on Facebook invites people to vote for the film in order to help in screening it in their respective cities. Once it reaches 100 per cent,UTV will bring the film to that city. So far,Hyderabad and Chennai have made it,and Chandigarh has grown from a 14 per cent to 26 per cent in two days. According to Gandhi,it was Rao and Aamir Khans idea to initiate a democratic process of voting and letting people decide what they want to see. It gives ownership and empowers people to actively participate in the process. Voting means voicing your opinion,choosing what you want as part of mass culture and its production, says Gandhi,on this reverse engineering that works on letting people decide what they want to consume,in this case,cinematically. A small budget film noticed by Rao at the Naya Film Festival held in Mumbai,Gandhi is happy that his work has come this far. Although he has Rao and UTV on board with this,he says due to budget restraints and limited infrastructure,his film cannot be released all over the country. I want it to release pan-India which is a tall order right now. So,I am hoping voting helps, adds Gandhi. While UTV had suggested five cities to begin with,the campaign will carry on for two weeks even after its release in Delhi and Mumbai yesterday. Gandhi is hoping for Ahmedabad,Cochin,Lucknow and Chandigarh to achieve a 100 per cent. What if it doesnt? Wont he lose out? Yes, agrees Gandhi. But someone has to initiate this process,create this culture and help people see the cinema they want to. There is a glaring absence of infrastructure that allows people to participate actively,aggressively, passionately and daily,on everything concerning the country, he says. Maybe,it wont be possible with one film,adds Gandhi. It will take more,even if it means him taking the first blow. The loss is mine,I know it. But I am prepared to take its burden provided we trigger a movement and create a platform one that improves the entire machinery of selection,distribution and exhibition of films which engages people in a dialogue and helps in fixing the gaping holes in the system. The world is not of passive consumers anymore, he says.
