Hindi cinema doesn’t have a great track record, at least of commercial success, when it comes to projects around the generation of freedom fighters. Not many movies have been made, fewer still have connected to the larger audience. Is there any point in making more movies on characters such as Mahatma Gandhi? Anubhav Sinha says yes, that filmmakers have a responsibility to keep making these films, in the hope that maybe the next one will work, or the one after that, or the one after that...

I feel there should be one or two films made on Gandhi every year, for the next hundred years. His contribution to the modern history of our country is just amazing. The weaknesses he shows, the strength that he shows, the tough decisions that he takes…

I was telling my son ki Gandhi woh aadmi tha jo kehta tha ki tum log jhagda band nahi karoge toh main khana nahi khaunga. Toh mera beta hasne lag gaya. Bola toh? Toh maine kaha log jhagda band kar dete thay. Ek baar nahi hua, kai baar hua. Ye uss aadmi ka power tha. Ambedkar ke, Gandhi ke views sabko maloom hain. Par jab Constituent Assembly banti hai toh woh Nehru se jaakar kehta hai ki Constitution inse likhwao. Because yeh desh ko behtar samajhte hain. Desh ke vanchiton ko behtar samajhte hain. Aur woh aadmi jo criticize karta tha, woh aisa karne ko agree kar deta hai. Woh Congress party join karta hai. Yeh bade unique log thay. Ambedkar ho, Gandhi ho, Patel ho. Yeh baat toh sach hai na ki Patel ko vote zyada mile thay aur Gandhi ne kaha ki nahi Nehru. Toh woh step back kar jaate hain, aur aapko kahin bhi Gandhi aur Patel aur Nehru ke beech mein koi animosity ya koi sarcastic remark kahin dekhne ko nahi milta. Ye bade unique log hain! Patel, Nehru, Gandhi, even V P Menon. Inn logon par toh itna zyada kaam hone ki zaroorat hai. Bhagat Singh. Bose. Matlab aapas ke itne contradictions...

We have to understand that we are not making glucose biscuits. These are films, and these films live. A glucose biscuit is consumed with a cup of tea and it’s over. Then you buy a new packet. This is a different ball game. This is an art form. And every film, every such film will leave an impact on X number of people.

And slowly for all we know that X number of people will swell into a much larger number, which it should and it will. So just because two films on Bhagat Singh did not work, it doesn’t mean that the audience is not interested in him.

And also, those films were made with people who were in their thirties. When Bhagat Singh started, he was 17. He was born in 1907. He died in 1931. 24 saal mein toh phaansi ho gayi thi. Toh 17 saal ke ladke ke saath Bhagat Singh kab bani? Jab tak aap 17 saal ka Bhagat Singh nahi dekhenge, aap Bhagat Singh ko samajh hi nahi sakte.

Those are the predicaments of the cinema being run by corporations, right? See, any art form is very intimate, very personal. But cinema is so capital intensive that it becomes a corporate-run art form. So it will have these hiccups and roadblocks. But that still doesn’t mean that the next Bose should not be made or the one after that should not be made – or the one after that should not be made. It is our responsibility as filmmakers to keep on doing it because these people have played the most significant part in the making of India that we live in and that we chant about. We will never be able to contribute to India like they did.

True. And we do not; we do not have this argument about the other side of the spectrum. So are you telling me that if a film about Air Force warfare doesn’t work, we should stop making films about Air Force warfare? No! It didn’t work. The next time it will work. Maybe the time after that.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe in 2047, a Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose film will work. We have to keep making it. And it’s not easy to make these films. It’s very difficult to make these films. But that’s the game. That’s the business of films.

But why shouldn’t they? I am not opposed to it. There are people who believe in Godse. They should make films about Godse. There are people who believe in Savarkar. They should make films about Savarkar. There are people who believe in Nehru. They should make films about Nehru. These people, whether it’s Godse or Savarkar – they have a place in history, right? They have a definite place in history, and their stories should be brought to the table.

We should not live on WhatsApp myths. There should be a biopic on Godse. There should be a biopic on every such person who played a part in the making of this nation. Because we can have these n number of dining table conversations about them, but we have a responsibility to acknowledge them, to recognize them, to talk about them, to know them. I’ve just ordered a book by Savarkar. I want to read Savarkar. I want to know Savarkar. And why shouldn’t I?

I think they were all human beings. I’m reasonably certain that they all made mistakes. But there was something going on between 1915 and 1950. There was something going on, and there were significant things going on. People losing lives, people changing history’s course. According to me, there are 200 films between 1915 and 1950. 200. 200 films minimum.

The Komagata Maru ship tragedy is not explored yet. A whole lot of things, like even Bose. Bose’s days in Germany when he goes to meet Hitler, there’s a film there. You can agree, disagree with anybody. That’s besides the point. But there are at least two movies there. There’s maybe more. What happened in Singapore?

What was Bose doing in Singapore? There’s a story there. There’s a film there. I would love to make a love story between Nehru, Gandhi and Patel. I think it’s a love story. It’s a beautiful love story.

Yeah, There’s... In my office, in my room, there’s only one picture on a wall, which is Gandhi. And for a reason. I try to visit every place that Gandhi visited. I go and sit there alone. I went to Bhitiharwa where he started his first Indigo Revolution. I sat there for two hours. I was sitting in the cottage that he made with his own hands. I sat under the tree that he planted. I… sort of spent time with him. One thing I miss terribly is that I never met him.

That’s a very hagiographical film.

Yeah. No, there’s no other film on Gandhi, actually, and there’s none that treats Gandhi as a human being, which this film is doing. Just as a human being. I mean, we forget that the first time Gandhi ever got political, it was a rather racist cause. In South Africa, he was saying, ‘Don’t treat Brown people like Black people. Treat them like White people.’

But then he corrects himself. By the time he comes back in 1915, he’s a different man, and between 1915 and 1948, he’s a different man. And he’s changed over time. He’s constantly improving himself and at the same time not rejecting his mistakes. You read his autobiography, he talks about his stint with non-vegetarianism. He talks about that night when his father passed away.

By the time he wrote this book, he was a Mahatma already. He didn’t need to write all that. He didn’t need to write all that. His non-vegetarianism was between him and his friend and could easily have been buried. You and I wouldn’t talk about it today. But he wrote it in his autobiography. And that’s when I... And it comes on the fourth page or the sixth page, and I was like, “Whoa. What a man.”

We haven’t seen a film of that kind about Gandhi, the kind of truthfulness and faithfulness he has in his narrative about his own life without being worried of, uh, its interpretations.

He wrote what he lived. That’s a lot of courage. I was recently reading something that Marcus Aurelius said – that nobody knows you fully well. There are 17 sides that are inside of you. Nobody knows you. Even if you don’t know yourself very well. Then why should you worry about what people think of you? Because they don’t know you. And Gandhi explores himself in that book, and, he says everything that he knows about himself.

Some of the pictures are dark, some of the pictures are bright, but he puts them out, and he allows you to interpret him in the manner you choose to.

The first thing was that I... The first thought that came to mind was, how can I steal this story? (laughs). Can I... Should I ask him? Can I? Because he had come over. He comes over home quite frequently in the night, sometimes for dinner, sometimes for post-dinner coffee or ice cream, and we sit and we talk about films and life and the world. And one of these days, he told me that story, and I actually considered asking him, ‘Do you want... Do you mind giving this story to me?’ But then I didn’t, because he was so passionate about it. So, I thought I’ll get associated with it as a producer.

The fact that he was looking at Gandhi in such a personal humanist vision. A man who could make mistakes.