In a chat with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7s Walk the Talk,filmmaker Prakash Jha talks about his films,politics and his passion for the real India My guest is a wonderful filmmaker,who,for one,is not afraid of messing with the grimy India,but has also found the perfect balance between the shiny and the grimy,and if I may say so now,also the slimy. Prakash Jha,you are a brave man! Thank you for that introduction. One has been seeing the way India has been developing. Year after year,we talk about the great shining India,the growth rates,etc. I belong to a village in Betia (Bihar). You have to get 2 km off any expressway in this country ― four lanes or seven lanes ― to see the real India. You know,75-77 per cent of the population of this country is still looking for opportunities,still trying to understand what all this growth is about. The real India continuously engages my mind. Any development,whether it is the Mandal Commission or free-market economy or any kind of social change,it engrosses me. I try to study it and see what effect it has on the grassroots and try to find stories in it. When you came to Mumbai,what were the surprises that awaited you? Before Mumbai,I had lived in Delhi. I was in the university there and had some idea of a metropolitan city. I was doing physics honours,I gave that up,because we Biharis are genetically manufactured to become IAS or IPS officers. Thats what my family expected me to do. And I thought if I became a graduate,there would be no way to escape that. So I thought I wont do my graduation and that would be an excuse for not becoming an IAS officer. And then you came to Mumbai to become a painter Yes,and I got into filmmaking accidentally. One day,my neighbour,art director Agha Jani was going to the shooting of Dharma at Sun and Sand hotel. I went at 9 in the morning and stood in a corner till 9 in the night,fearing that I would be thrown out. But the whole scenario of the shooting of a film kind of zapped me,and I thought,this is it! This is exactly what I want to do,I want to become a film director. Then you went to the FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) Yes,I was there for a year and did film editing. In that period,FTII sent a whole bunch of creative people to Hindi cinema All of us were in the same batch Vinod Chopra,Saeed Mirza,David Dhawan and I. We all came out of the institute and were making parallel cinema. NFDC (National Film Development Corporation) was our backbone and we did it for about 10 years,and that was the period I made films like Damul and Parinati. And when did parallel lines begin to converge? The day the open-market economy was adopted and the NFDC was told to fend for itself. If you have a profit,you can run. Otherwise,you cant. We either had to make mainstream,commercial cinema or wind up. But you did some really mainstream,romantic cinema. Are you done with that or will you go back and dabble with it? No I didnt. Dil Kya Kare was the only one I had done,but before that,I had done Mrityudand. And then my heart was into films like Apaharan,Gangaajal,Rajneeti,Aarakshan. Those are the films I relate to. Each of these films is also based on contemporary political realities. Is there an effort to combine politics with glamour? Because all these films have had top stars Absolutely. You need a top star cast to get the films exhibited. One has to look into the whole economics of it and the kind of scale I want to bring to my films. In India,everything is on scale be it politics,social events,etc. Many of the top stars who acted in these films had never seen a village or done a long ride on a train. Was it difficult? I work with my actors much in advance,before I start shooting on any subject. I call them,inform them,tell them the stories,and talk about their characters,my real-life experiences. So they come informed and prepared. So,that doesnt bother me very much. You are challenging two things in Hindi cinema ― one,you are bringing back the rural,and second,you are bringing back the politics. I have always been interested in social movements. Damul was about the traditional zamindari system; Mrityudand was a result of the Mandal Commission and the open market economy; in Gangaajal,the saturation of the caste system was exhibited; Apaharan was about kidnapping in Bihar. Now though,it is difficult to find such subjects in Bihar under Nitishji (Kumar). Has Bihar changed? Socially,yes. There is a lot of confidence there. The ground-level infrastructure,in terms of empowerment to women and backward classes,has improved. And the rule of law is the greatest thing that has happened. You can do business and live there unafraid. And even if you are not doing anything,you are not worried about somebody kidnapping or murdering you. You are not exactly a part of this politics? I have never been a part of this politics. Because I contested elections,people think I am a politician. No,I only wanted that job. I felt that MPs,who have tremendous access to resources,do not deliver. And with whatever management skills I had gathered working as a filmmaker,I thought I could do something. I was really concerned about it and wanted to do that job. I tried it twice,the second time I was nearly there. In fact,had I been a politician,I would have never joined Ram Vilas Paswanji. I would have fought independently. But you make mistakes But you did not get disillusioned with electoral politics after losing? No,absolutely not. That is the way it should be. But personally,I had only given 10 years of my life to public service,which is when I thought I would be most productive and energetic. By the next election,I will be over 60 and I have a lot of other things to do. Do your films reflect your politics as well? In my films,I try to be unbiased. Of course,there are shades of your belief and thinking. But with politics,I try to be as clean as possible; I bring in all the points of view and put them on the table so that debate can happen in the public domain. I did that in Aarakshan,I have very consciously done that with Chakravyuh,because it deals with a very sensitive subject,Naxalism. Before I ask if you are giving a political message,let me ask what is your politics? My politics is a true democracy (sic),Lohia-ite or socialist,as they say in the Hindi heartland. I believe in equal opportunities and a classless society. Whatever wealth I have accumulated through my films or through my professional career,it all goes into helping this cause. Do you feel Bihar has been undermined in the way it has been caricatured? Absolutely,and in spite of the fact that Bihar is so rich in terms of history. Even today,Bihar produces the most academic and intellectual individuals,along with manual labour. You go to any part of this country and you will find Bihari labourers,bureaucrats,entrepreneurs. Bihar is to India what India is to the rest of the world. Your new film Chakravyuh I know you have been under attack from some sections of the industry. You are not anti-private business,you are a businessman yourself. No,not at all. So where does this come from? Does it reflect your anger or cynicism or is it a slice of opinion from the Naxalite campaigners that you are reflecting in your film? Absolutely,the song is being sung by the Naxals,their propaganda in village markets and street theatres. It is their way of protesting and saying the government is bad,the systems are bad,and industrialists are exploiting us. They attune it into folk songs and then sing it out. Thats exactly what is happening in my film. I have heard these lines being sung by a Chhattisgarh group and in fact,I tried to find out who wrote them. Resource-based industries are a contro-versial issue one set of people calls it extractive industry,another calls it resource industry and says it is vital But when you are trying to extract the resource,you dont bother about the villagers who have been living there for centuries. You just displace them. It hits me when I read in the newspapers that the chief executives of huge industrial houses,who take away Rs 75-cr salaries,make Rs 1500-cr houses How do you sleep when you think that Rs 20-30 mein iss desh ka 70 per cent population rehta hai? Earn wealth for the country and for yourself. But share it and contribute. If the government raises taxes,you cry. I think 90 per cent should be taxed,you can survive on 10 per cent. My guru in journalism,Arun Shourie,always used to tell us that our job is to hold a mirror to society. So maybe films are a way of doing that too Thats exactly what I am trying to do. I have also shown the mirror to the Naxals. Its not just the industrialists. When you see the film,youll understand. And they dont have the answers the answer is not the gun. Absolutely not. The Constitution still has the answers. I think you can afford to smile,because what you have done is that you have not just brought politics and villages to Hindi cinema,but also proved to Hindi cinema that these can be commercially successful Thank you,Shekhar,thank you very much. Transcribed by Nayanika Chakraborty. For the full transcript,log on to www.indianexpress.com
