Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; April 21, 2014)

Filmmaker Kamal Swaroop is gearing up for his next project, a documentary titled Battle Of Banaras. Focusing on the struggle for power in the holy heartland of Banaras, Swaroop has been travelling extensively in the city in a bid to meet and interview people for this documentary. Swaroop says, “I chose Banaras because it is definitely a battleground for power. Then again, I don’t see Kejriwal as a threat; to me, it’s a fight between the Congress and the BJP.”

Interestingly, most candidates contesting elections in Banaras this year are outsiders. Narendra Modi is from Gujarat; Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi, while Ajay Rai of the Congress is currently an MLA from Pindra, which is outside Banaras. Similarly, Samajwadi Party’s Kailash Chaurasiya is from Mirzapur.

A graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Kamal Swaroop has assisted Richard Attenborough on his film, Gandhi, and is currently working on the television series, The Life and Times of Dadasaheb Phalke.

His first feature film, Om Dar-Ba-Dar, was made in 1988 and it took 26 years to finally release in India.
Swaroop now plans to release the documentary in cinema halls as well. He says, “I am going to meet a senior journalist who will share with me the history of elections held in Banaras right from the year 1947 onwards.” The filmmaker also observes that while he finds Modi’s supporters to be more organised, ‘Kejriwal’s men are not’. Swaroop adds that he plans to premiere the film at the Cannes Film festival.
Manu Kumaran, the producer of the documentary, says, “People are keenly following the elections in Banaras and we will get to see this wave of interest through Kamal Swaroop’s film. The documentary will be a compelling proposition for global audiences,” he says.
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Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 22, 2014)

Kamal Swaroop, who won the National Award (Best Non-Feature Film) for Rangbhoomi, his biopic on the life of the late Dadasaheb Phalke, feels he could have made a better film. "I will go back to Rangbhoomi after a few years and make it more comprehensive," he says.

Presently,the filmmaker has parked himself in Varanasi, where he is shooting a 90-minute documentary on the on-going Lok Sabha election. "We are filming from 6 am till midnight, with three separate units tracking every party," he reveals.

With German author Elias Canetti's 1960 book, Crowds and Power, as its anchor, the film seeks to develop a connect between Varanasi's mythological personality and the battle of ballots among BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Aam Aadmi Party's leader Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' candidate Ajay Rai who are contesting from the constituency. The documentary titled Battle of Banaras is financed by a US production house.

"Fifty years from now, this fight will be looked back as an epic war. People will talk about it from a mythological point of view," Swaroop says. "The idea to make this film is also to understand the way the election machinery functions, the identity of the voters, the communal divide and how the local population is directly affected by the ones who will take charge."

He goes on to add that although the nature of the film is political, he is apolitical as a person. "I am of the belief that whoever is in power will have a strong tendency to abuse it. But, people admire powerful people and choose to give them the power. In this case, there is so much of it centring on one person, that if he takes office, it will become impossible for him to contain it. Things will explode. More than showcasing an ideological conflict, I am curious to document the administration bit of this spectacle." Swaroop, along with his crew will be in the holy city till May 20. "We are looking at a theatrical distribution as well as a festival run," he said.