A Mighty Heart

Small-budget films’ poster boy- Raj Kumar Gupta’s best friend is his conviction

When his first film Aamir released in 2008,a fertile ground was set for low-budget films,shorn of stars but with a well-defined conscience,to come out of grim posters. With his latest cinematic foray,No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ) director Raj Kumar Gupta gallantly rides waves of mixed reactions. He was present at ‘Fest-O-Comm’,the annual cultural and media festival of Symbiosis Institute of Media and communication (SIMC),at their Lavale campus. Speaking about his films he says,“I believe the human element is the most important part of any story. There are stories all around us,like NOKJ was in the news for such a long time. Had anyone looked at it closely,he would have realised that this story had such dramatic elements. Had this instance happened in a film or a book we would have ridiculed it as exaggeration. But this was real.”

Never having received any formal training in film-making,Gupta cut his teeth while assisting celebrated director Anurag Kashyap. “ Amir was made on a very modest budget,but earned a handsome profit. Once you are confident,the producers willingly follow your vision”. As in the case of NOKJ,the audience reaction quite trumped critical grumpiness. “The critics say that I have used too many stereotypical characters in the film,while I have tried to break them. Journalists are always shown in jeans and khadi kurtas ,but Rani’s character was very real and human. That’s who journalists are.” Wait along for Rapchik Romance for more Gupta speak.