Journalism of Courage
At Expresso, Taapsee Pannu said that OTT platforms are pushing back, don’t want to spend money on promoting small films, ‘We can’t take every film’.
When asked if Amar Singh Chamkila would have been as successful in theatres, Imtiaz said, "The honest answer is we don’t know (at the moment) and we will realise only in retrospect. As filmmakers, we are here not only to conjecture but also to find opportunities to tell stories that we have.”
Taapsee shared her formula for deciding if a movie is made for the theatres or OTT platforms: "I try to understand if something requires a community viewing experience or if it’s okay to be watched one-on-one. I understand a story or concept will be fun when 100 people see it together for example Kalki 2898 AD or Munjya. Big laughs, big scale, big thrill and big chill are fun to watch when you are with 100-200 people and laughing and gasping together. Then there are certain films which are good for one-on-one experience."
Taapsee Pannu says she has worked best when she ruffled feathers.
Her response to a question on the price of being outspoken was, "There are no free lunches. I don’t live by ‘Log kya kahege? (what will people say?)’ Because I have a family who lives like that, I don’t like that way of living. So, I like to have a life of my own. I want to be sure how I will answer to myself. I want to be sure of what I say about myself. That is how I operate with the films I do or what I say. I shouldn’t be embarrassed by what I have done and said and not be able to face myself. There is a price to pay for it.”
‘Jab We Met’s Geet and Aditya would be at a divorce lawyer’s today, wish Tamasha’s Ved and Tara didn’t end up together,’ says Imtiaz Ali
Imtiaz shared his ideal alternate ending to Tamasha: “You know the ideal ending of Tamasha would have been if they hadn’t gotten together but he would have still idolized her as his muse. I wish that was the ending actually but that thought came a little late so in that scenario they would be separate and she would always be watching his shows but not telling him that she had come for it."
About Rockstar's Jordan, he shared, "I think he would have become a corrupt music industry head. Like he would have his own company and he would be completely fake and corrupt."
Imtiaz Ali recalls when Anurag Kashyap attempted to make it as an actor, showed him his portfolio. "When I was in the second year (of his undergraduate degree), someone came to meet me at my college hostel. He said, ‘I heard you are involved in some TV programme that is about to happen,’ and I was. He said, ‘My name is Anurag Kashyap. I am from Hansraj College and I also stay at the hostel.’ He wore glasses back then thinking that made him look cool."
Imtiaz Ali explained why he did not stress on Chamkila’s caste in Amar Singh Chamkila. "Was he unique because he was Dalit? If I stress on the fact again and again that he was a Dalit, am I doing service to the caste system per se? Am I trying to also put him in to box which had actually afflicted him? I wanted the story to be free of something he was not free of,” he said.
Imtiaz went on to explain, "So just by saying that he was a Dalit over and over again and emphasising how big that problem was in Punjab and still continues to be, is not the basis of my story and I am not doing service to the society by repeating that story.”
Taapsee Pannu talks about Jab We Met's Geet, "The relatability quotient for an actress has never been higher than that for someone like me at that point because here I was seeing everyone so picture perfect, dressed well and just looking like a million bucks and talking perfectly, everything that needs to be said in the right way. And Geet was someone who is so relatable because she is so improper but that was the reason why she was so enduring,” she said.
Taapsee said, "She is so politically incorrect in a lot of situations so the relatability quotient of that heroine was so high. That is the reason for me to make it a part of my pop culture and hence it intrigued an audience like me. It made me ask, ‘Ye kisne banaya hai (Who has made this?)’ To make this kind of character loveable who is just so odd, hence the intrigue and knowing the brand called Imtiaz Ali and keeping an eye out for his work."
