NL Interviews: Abhinandan Sekhri in conversation with Meghna Gulzar

The kind of positive reviews you’ve received across the board, is it overwhelming or now they don’t matter anymore? What’s your take?

No, they will never not matter because you’re creating something to put out there for the people to opine on. So that opinion will always be relevant and important. So yes, it is overwhelming because there’s been complete approval across the board barring one or two here and there. The numbers — the way the film is performing at the theatres –are steadily growing, so there’s a word of mouth, there’s an acceptance from the people. Then you come across messages which people are sending and forwarding,  which says we were watching it in this theatre, the audience stood up and clapped at the end. That is my biggest payoff.

So, how the audience reacts…

No, the point is, it is not just acceptance, they are owning the film now. It is that [sort of] internalisation of a film — when the audience does that — it is a big expression of acceptance.

At any stage, have you felt the pressure of having to be careful about — if the Pakistani characters look sympathetic, it may not be accepted? Was that ever a concern? At any stage, did you feel that pressure?

Not during the making of it, no. Fortunately, everybody involved in the film was completely invested and believed in the story. And right at the script level, all the characters have been etched out and given their humanity and civility, which got elevated with their performances. Once the film was made and a few people started watching it — [it was then] when these external thoughts started coming. But I wasn’t afraid of it. Yes, there’s a chance. Not only is this film not saying ‘India is great and Pakistan is being bashed — it’s not doing that, but you also have a Kashmiri Muslim as your lead protagonist who’s supposed to be a patriot. That itself is contradictory to today’s narrative. And it’s not something I’m unaware of. But I know that and I have a really, really high regard for the intelligence of my audience — both emotional and intellectual. And I know that if they connect with the character, Sehmat, and her journey, then these labels are not going to matter, they will dissipate. I think it is this intent and integrity that the audience picks up very quickly from a film.

They are lauding the fact that we are showing them (Pakistani characters) as human beings. I’m reading comments where they are saying that it is the first time where a Hindi film has shown Pakistanis as humans. We are no different, we’re actually the same.

Personally, you’ve seen Filhaal was panned by critics. Talvar was lauded and also did really well. You’ve experienced both success and failure. Would failure affect you today as much as say 10 years ago or does every film bring about the same nervousness? Do you still crave the same kind of acceptance or after a while, it doesn’t matter as much as it did earlier?

The failure on Filhaal hurt emotionally because I was just starting out. And to get discouraged like that after your first film affects you a lot. And then came ‘Just Married’ which was also panned but it hurt less because I had seen the broader spectrum of it on Filhaal. Then came Talvar for which I was just blank in terms of expectations. I was just only driven by the urge to tell this story. And everybody behind Talvar had no expectations from the box office, from the critics — nothing. We just wanted to tell the story. So when that acceptance and the success came, it was overwhelming because it was unexpected and it was all new. But because I have Filhaal behind me, I know I will never take success too seriously.

Coming back to Raazi, during the making of the film you had a schedule in Punjab, and as your good luck would have it, Ram Rahim’s conviction happened on that day. Then, there was that riot. So tell me what happened? Did you have to cancel the shoot there? Did you change the script? Did you have to change the location? How bad was it? Now when you see the film, it all seems so smooth, but the chaos that must have ensued — when you have a unit of some 100 people landing in Haryana — must have brought everything to a standstill. 

We lost four shooting days, the unit was held up in 4 different hotels because there was curfew across Punjab, Haryana and parts of Delhi. Luckily for us, the curfew was announced at night for the following day. So we had finished that day’s work. I had 12 days more to go in Punjab. And then we had to go to Chandigarh for a five-day shoot. Our tickets to Srinagar were booked for September 15 — 170 tickets. And we knew that [things couldn’t be] changed. I know that I lost four days. But at that time, sitting in Punjab, I didn’t know how many days I was going to lose. You couldn’t tell when the curfew was going to end but you knew that you’d have to leave for Srinagar on that day because the cost for re-booking everybody and cancelling those tickets would have been a very big burden to bear for a film. So every day the call sheet would be made and then there would be this five-hour suspense of should we publish it. We would make a few calls. “Haa lagta hai ho jayegi shooting. Okay, publish”. Another call. “Nai lagta hai kal bhi curfew hai. Okay, hold on don’t publish”. Every evening, from 5 to 9, for five hours this would go on for four days. By this time, the unit was also getting fed up. Yes, the first day we thought, okay, we got to rest because we were tired as hell but by the third day we were like can we get on with it now because it’s not like you’re resting or you’re able to do any kind of recreation ’cause you’re stuck in a hotel.

So how did you make up for the loss? Did you change the script? Did you cut out a scene? 

We gave up all our break days and we shot non-stop for 22 days. Our last sequence was a night shoot which should have had pre-lighting. But the lightmen went from lighting in the day to shooting at night and were fatigued to the extent that they couldn’t carry the boosters at night. We couldn’t complete the sequence because we got no pre-light. And we’re covering like a 3-km area in Patiala near Neemrana and the gardens over there. So as we’re moving the lights and generator are moving with us. So we didn’t finish our shoot. Dawn broke and our sequence wasn’t completed and that’s the first time it happened in this film. That we hadn’t completed a call sheet. So that, I think also downed the morale of the unit. We didn’t even rest that day. We went to the hotel, showered, changed, and left for Chandigarh. And we had to shoot the next day.

Kashmir is going through severe conflict. What was shooting there like? What is your politics on it? Do you have a view on it? What was your experience like?

Ours was very smooth. The people are very warm and lovely. For me, it was beautiful because I had gone there as a child while my parents were shooting. And now I’ve gone to shoot there myself, it’s still as beautiful, the people are still as warm. Yes, there is unrest but I feel that there is militancy, there is a section of the Kashmiri population which is militant and perhaps anti-India but it’s not the entire people of Kashmir. And to paint them all with the same broad brush is unfair. Because you do have other pockets of people like this all over the country.

I notice you are not very active on social media but each time a Bollywood celebrity expresses or articulates a political viewpoint, there is a backlash one way or the other. There is this entire political viewpoint of Bollywood or Hindi film industry or even the south can damage your market. What is your take on that? Do you hold your tongue on issues like these? How do you look at this new environment where market valuations could be impacted by your politics?

Honestly, I don’t subscribe to living like that because then you cant say a word. Because you don’t know which market you’re going to be damaging and offending. Everybody stands up, everybody is very entitled on social media. You are entitled to react, but the person who is giving the opinion is not entitled to your opinion. Personally, when I really, really get affected by something or when I have a film to talk about is when I do it. But just to make my presence felt, I will not go and comment on everything that is happening. I think the backlash also comes from that. When you sense a hollowness behind those statements is when the backlash comes. This is what I am saying. We need to give the intelligence of our people a little respect. Not all of the backlash is hollow. Some of it is deserved some of it is not. But all I’m saying is that social media is becoming a place of entitlement and a place for bullies which is not the best way to use it. I’m sure it was intended and designed for better things.

Do you want to weigh in on this entire debate that was sparked off with Karan Johar about nepotism and the film industry? It must have been quite difficult to be always compared to your father Gulzar, but when this entire thing broke everybody weighed in with all sorts of views. Do you have a set view on this?

My set view is my life experience. My last name is Gulzar, my first film was a flop. It took me seven years to make my next film. So much for nepotism.

You can hear the interview on Youtube as well.