In less than a year, Anubhav Sinha has made films on two burning issues: the anti-Muslim environment and the broadening caste divide. He talks to us on changing tracks, from Dus and Ra.One to Mulk and Article 15
Ekta Mohta (MID-DAY; June 23, 2019)

In 1949, while writing the most important book in the country, Dr BR Ambedkar made some bits autobiographical. In Article 15, he put his thoughts and personal experiences to paper and spoke of the birthright of citizens: no citizen can be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth. In 2014, a few Hindu men from Badaun, UP, who hadn't read that section, raped two teenagers and hung them out to dry from a mango tree. In 2017, filmmaker Anubhav Sinha sat down to write his first draft of Article 15, a story that includes all of that, and a story that has been 2,000 years in the making.

Releasing this week, with actor Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead, Sinha tells us that his film is actually based on several incidents. "When you see the film, and if you've been reading newspapers, you'll see all those cases. Government data tells you it happens once a day." In the film, the teenagers are raped and murdered because they demand a raise of three rupees. "When I wrote this, my CFO, Dubey ji, who is a Brahmin, said, 'Nahi sir, aisa nahi hota.' So I called a friend from Delhi, whose been a journalist for 20 years, and put her on speakerphone. She said, 'Within 15 minutes from Delhi, this could happen to a girl for three rupees.' It's not about three rupees; it's about 'I will tell you what you deserve. And if you have a voice against it, I will show you your place'."

After 20 years in the entertainment industry, and after making films such as Ra.One, Dus and Tum Bin, it appears that Sinha has finally found his place. Last year's Mulk, with actors Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu, showed the rills between Hindus and Muslims, simmering and poisoning over 70 years. As the son of Benares and the alum of Aligarh Muslim University, Sinha is an insider in both worlds. "My father's best friend was a Muslim, and he would eat with us in ceramic plates, while we would eat in steel plates. One day, my elder sister and I protested. Mom realised that we also cook mutton. So, we changed it inside the house."

What started out with regular housecleaning has now grown to include his mulk. "There was too much going on in the country at that point vis-à-vis Hindus and Muslims, and I was sick and tired of it. There was a narrative being built, which started with some headlines in the newspapers that by the year 2000 and X, there will be more Muslims in India than Hindus and some sh*t like that. And I wanted to have a voice and I did." But, it isn't like he had a sudden change of heart. His concerns were "brewing" and niggling at the back of his mind his entire life. "I always saw the wrong in things that were happening around me, whether it was class politics, caste politics, or more than the two, gender politics. I've been [dead] against this idea of two human beings not being equal because of their place of birth. There is no reason why society should not offer [someone] the same opportunity as somebody who was born 200 yards away. These are questions that you want to ask society and ask yourself. And if you can weave a story that can encompass all of that and still make an engaging viewing, then you have a movie."





In recent times, Sinha attributes his change in sensibilities to a specific activity. "I had stopped reading. I come from Benares, where music and literature are very rich. And then I became an engineer, and the whole relationship with literature was lost. And then I came to Mumbai, where I was into another art form, which I had no idea about. So, I was learning lensing and editing and blah and blah, trying to survive and make a place for myself. Somebody asked me, 'Is there something new that you started doing in the last five years?' I've started reading again. I accept and recognise that now I get attracted to a very different kind of material than what I used to sometime back." These include dog-eared copies of Republic of Caste by Anand Teltumbde, Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki, Humans by Tom Phillips, and books by Mahatma Gandhi, whom he lovingly calls "the first Indian rock star."

Article 15, in its heart, reflects his library. "I belong to a caste that doesn't belong to any of the four varnas from Manusmriti. But because Kayasthas are educated people, we are considered upper caste. So, I was never personally affected by it in an adverse manner, but I could see where [someone from] a lower caste would treat himself differently. Because that's what he's told and that's what he believes and, worst of all, that's what he accepts. When a sabziwala came to our house, the way he would try and not touch anything. The bai at home, it's okay if she washes your utensils, but it's not okay if she uses them. It's a bizarre mix of caste and class politics. And, it's not only a UP thing. Now it has reached a medical college in the heart of Mumbai."

He thinks the world has consciously divided itself into superiors and inferiors. "For thousands of years, the world has been aligning itself into this wide inequality that we see today. There is a dialogue in Mulk, which, according to me, is the best line in the film. 'Agar sab log barabar ho jayenge, toh raja kaun banega?' We have this mean, vicious streak to be the king. That's the problem. Nobody likes the same size." None of us want to be Indians, firstly and lastly, the way Dr Ambedkar imagined.

On Sinha's Bookshelf

Cinemas Take Down Film As Mayor, Others Say Gay Tale Defames City
Eram Agha (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 28, 2016)

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 19, 2014)

Mirror (July 8) was the first to report that this year's National Award winning director for Shahid, Hansal Mehta, was setting up the stage for his next film inspired by an Aligarh Muslim University professor.

Just days before he was to retire, he was suspended after being filmed on spy-cam while having consensual sex with a rickshawallah, in his apartment within the campus.

Manoj Bajpayee will play the professor and the film, to be produced by Sunil Lulla and Hansal, will go on floors in January 2015.

While the rickshaw puller has yet to be cast, Hansal's favourite actor Rajkummar Rao will play an important part, that of journalist, Deepu Sebastian, who broke the story.

Though Hansal and Manoj have been friends since 1993, the filmmaker was apprehensive about approaching the actor. So he asked casting director Mukesh Chhabra make the call. "After he spoke to Mukesh, Manoj called me up and let loose a volley of expletives, demanded to know why I hadn't asked him myself," laughs Hansal.

The story idea was mailed to Hansal by a girl, Ishani Banerji, and it blew his mind. "Thank god, I don't erase my emails without reading them. Apurva Israni, who edited Satya, makes his debut as a full-fledged writer with this film. A similar case happened in Baroda. We will borrow from both these incidents and a few others," says Hansal, asserting that it is a story that needs to be told.

"Why do we marginalize people in our society on counts like religion, sexual preferences and the likes?" he asks, clenching his fist. "This film is about the draconian article 377 of IPC. How does it matter to anybody what two consenting adults do in their bedroom? I have several gay friends whose housing societies mirror the state that has become the moral police."

Buzz is, he had Nawazuddin Siddiqui in mind for the role of the professor. "I had spoken to him sometime ago," admits Hansal, adding that the actor was quite entusiastic about the role. "But after that we both got busy and lost touch. Nawaz is a phenomenal actor and I would love to work with him in future."

He has worked with Manoj in Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar and insists the actor is an ocean of talent whose best is yet to come. "Look at his body of work. Do I need to say anything more?" he raves

Wasn't he tempted to ask Rajkummar to step into the professor's shoes? "He's too young for this role. He's more apt to play the quirky journalist from Kerala," Hansal quips.

Will Manoj be comfortable doing intimate scenes with another man? "That won't be a problem, Manoj is a director's actor. He has even started learning Marathi and getting into a professor's body language," Hansal shoots back.

Isn't the film going to be a risky proposition considering its bold subject? "I am in the risk group. I am 47 years old, tomorrow, I can fall anywhere. Why should I live my life looking over my shoulder?" he asks.

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 8, 2014)

In 2010, an Aligarh Muslim University professor, on the verge of retirement, was suspended after he was filmed on spy-cam having consensual sex with a rickshaw-puller in his apartment inside the campus.

The video was later sent to the university authorities who suspended the 64-year-old Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, reader and chairman of Modern Indian Languages at AMU, under Statute 40(3)(c) of the University Statutes. He was also ordered to vacate the house allotted to him by the university. Less than two months after he was suspended and hounded out of the campus, Siras was found dead in mysterious circumstances at his rented single-room accommodation in Aligarh's Durga Wadi neighbourhood.

After depicting the life and tragic end of human rights activist Shahid Azmi on screen, National Award winning director Hansal Mehta has taken up Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras's story for his upcoming biopic.

The film is as yet untitled. he lead cast is yet to be finalised and other modalities too are being worked upon. But according to a close close to the filmmaker, "Hansal is working on this subject as well as the Saaransh remake. Most probably, the Saaransh remake will go on floors first."