Riya Sharma (BOMBAY TIMES; April 20, 2019)

He is an alumnus of Hindu College and like any other former Delhi University student, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj does not leave a chance to visit the campus whenever he can. On Wednesday, Vishal attended the inauguration ceremony of the Campus Short Film Festival, organised by Hansraj College. “Mera yahan se purana naata hai, main yahin ka pala-bada hoon,” he said at the event. He spoke at length about how he became a filmmaker after attending film festivals, the impact of movies on society, and why he might take another three-four years to analyse the failure of his film Rangoon.

‘MAYBE IN THE FUTURE, AN ACTOR WILL BECOME A PM’
Talking about the impact of cinema and cricket, Vishal said, “We all have lots of opinions about both movies and cricket — ‘Hero ne aisi acting ki hoti toh achha hota’, ‘Cricket mein yeh over usko diya hota toh jeet jate’. Cinema has a lot of impact, it is the reflection of our society. Now, I think it has an impact over the elections as well, jabse Modi ji ki biopic ke trailer dekhe hain. Filhaal toh use dikhaya nahi ja raha hai, but I think that it is a big deal that we can make a film on the PM. So, for the next five years, we (the film industry) will try to contribute in politics. Yeh bahut badi baat hai that we (the film industry) can (contribute to) make a Prime Minister, (and in the future) shayad humara koi hero hi (PM) bann jaye!,” he said. The filmmaker added that anybody who wants immediate publicity, targets films. “Films ek soft target toh raha hai, dekhiye Padmaavat mein jo hua. Our lives are difficult. Whoever wants immediate publicity, woh seedha films ko target karta hai, hum logon pe bahut hamlein hote hain.”

Speaking at an event in a Delhi college, the filmmaker discussed the impact of movies, how film festivals shaped his career and why he can’t objectively analyse the failure of Rangoon yet

‘I LEARNT FILMMAKING FROM FILM FESTIVALS’
Telling the audience how film festivals have a major role to play in his life, Vishal said, “I have learnt filmmaking from film festivals. I entered the industry as a music composer and never thought that I could become a writer or a director. The first time I attended a film festival was in 1996, when I had given the music for Gulzar sahab’s movie Maachis. We had gone to Trivandrum and there I saw a series made by Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, called Dekalog. It was the modern interpretation of the Ten Commandments, and when I saw it, I realised films can have such a big impact. Before that, I was not exposed to world cinema.”

He added, “After that, I kept attending film festivals and I decided I wanted to become a filmmaker, because cinema is a combination of many different forms of art. Film festivals aapki life mein kya kar sakte hain, main uska sabse bada example hoon.”

‘IT WILL TAKE ME ANOTHER THREE-FOUR YEARS TO OBJECTIVELY ANALYSE WHY RANGOON DIDN’T WORK’
The filmmaker also interacted with the audience. When an audience member asked him whether he has analysed why Rangoon failed, he replied, “After watching all my films, 50 per cent people ask, ‘Kya banaya hai?’ Not just Rangoon, many of my films were not successful, par main fir bhi kamyaab hoon, that’s a big deal for me. As far as the analysis is concerned, you are always too close to your work. So you are not objective about your work. I finally have an opinion about my trilogy (Maqbool, Haider and Omkara) after so many years. I saw those film like the audience now. Rangoon ki bahut burayi huyi hai, so it’s possible that it was a bad film, but I will be able to analyse that after three-four years,” he said.