Arnesh Ghose

Dhanak, a film directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, has just won the National Award for Best Children’s film. Here’s taking a look at an interview we did with him for our June 2016 issue.&nbsp;&nbsp;Nagesh Kukunoor was&nbsp;indie even before India knew&nbsp;what indie was. He made&nbsp;Hyderabad Blues in 1998,&nbsp;when Indian cinema was&nbsp;at a low in terms of quality&nbsp;film production. The great&nbsp;maestros of the Indian New&nbsp;Wave were also slowing&nbsp;down, there was a vacuum&nbsp;of new voices in the country&nbsp;and with the arrival of the&nbsp;millennium, there was a need&nbsp;to climb out of the creative&nbsp;stupour the film industries&nbsp;were in. Some strong,&nbsp;independent voices started&nbsp;finding recognition around&nbsp;this time, and Kukunoor was&nbsp;one of them. 3 Deewarein&nbsp;was a cracker of a film, and&nbsp;he followed it up with an&nbsp;even bigger commercial&nbsp;success, Iqbal, in 2005. For&nbsp;many, Iqbal was everything&nbsp;Lagaan (which had travelled&nbsp;to the Oscars in 2002) was&nbsp;not – a film with great&nbsp;performances, an engaging&nbsp;narrative and a strong&nbsp;emotional core, without&nbsp;having to be melodramatic&nbsp;or emotionally manipulative.&nbsp;Iqbal didn’t try hard to&nbsp;impress you — like its lead&nbsp;characters, the film was not&nbsp;self-conscious or contrived.&nbsp;Even today, people pick&nbsp;it as one of India’s best&nbsp;modern works when they&nbsp;rattle off their film lists.&nbsp;When Kukunoor released&nbsp;Dor the next year, it seemed&nbsp;like there was no stopping&nbsp;this guy. A beautiful story,&nbsp;a strong feminist statement&nbsp;and a fascinating visual work,&nbsp;Dor remains a milestone in&nbsp;Kukunoor’s career.&nbsp;And then, suddenly,&nbsp;everything went downhill&nbsp;— it almost felt like the man&nbsp;had forgotten how to make&nbsp;films. The lacklustre line up&nbsp;(from Bombay to Bangkok&nbsp;to Mod) spanned four&nbsp;years and led to him being&nbsp;completely written off by&nbsp;almost everyone of note. He&nbsp;redeemed himself with the&nbsp;visceral Lakshmi, in 2014,&nbsp;and Dhanak was an absolute&nbsp;delight to watch. Nagesh&nbsp;Kukunoor is finally back in&nbsp;form, it appears.&nbsp;What happened to you&nbsp;around 2008-2009? As a&nbsp;fan, I took personal offence&nbsp;to all the criticism your films&nbsp;got. Why did you make&nbsp;them?&nbsp;(Laughs) See, when I made&nbsp;Hyderabad Blues, I had so&nbsp;many people telling me&nbsp;that it would not work, for&nbsp;obvious reasons. But when&nbsp;the film worked and found&nbsp;an audience, the one thing it&nbsp;taught me was to march to&nbsp;my own tune. This business&nbsp;or art form is so dicey and&nbsp;no one, in spite of what&nbsp;they might pretend, knows&nbsp;anything. I would rather&nbsp;take all the blame or all the&nbsp;credit. Right after Dor, I&nbsp;wanted to do something that&nbsp;was definitely not anything&nbsp;like it. I have been a major&nbsp;Scrubs fan, and I wanted&nbsp;Bombay to Bangkok to&nbsp;have the vibe of the show.&nbsp;People thought I wanted to&nbsp;make a “Bollywood” film,&nbsp;but that wasn’t even on&nbsp;my radar, because I know I&nbsp;would do it very poorly. It&nbsp;was coincidence that led to&nbsp;8×10 Tasveer becoming a&nbsp;mainstream film with Akshay&nbsp;Kumar in it. I just knew&nbsp;that because of the special&nbsp;effects requirement, I will&nbsp;need a bigger canvas. As a&nbsp;film-maker I am constantly&nbsp;exploring new genres and&nbsp;avenues, and all that matters&nbsp;to me is that I don’t repeat&nbsp;myself. But yeah, it was a&nbsp;messy period, a bad couple&nbsp;of years. I was only able to&nbsp;extricate myself after Mod,&nbsp;I guess.&nbsp;How does it feel to be back?&nbsp;The defining moment for me&nbsp;was Lakshmi winning at the&nbsp;Palm Springs festival. Even&nbsp;though I was happy with&nbsp;Mod, it performed abysmally&nbsp;at the box office. So, I&nbsp;thought, was it time for me&nbsp;to go back to my roots? Why&nbsp;the hell not, I decided. When&nbsp;Lakshmi won the awards,&nbsp;it gave me the confidence&nbsp;boost I needed. Lakshmi was&nbsp;shot exactly like Hyderabad&nbsp;Blues — shoestring budgets,&nbsp;shot insanely aggressively on&nbsp;a very tight schedule — and&nbsp;it made me feel like I was&nbsp;back in the space that I truly&nbsp;enjoyed.&nbsp;What is that space? With&nbsp;Dhanak, you are back in&nbsp;Rajasthan, a visual-cultural&nbsp;dynamic you have already&nbsp;dealt with quite well earlier,&nbsp;and you are working with&nbsp;children again. Is this a sort&nbsp;of trying to “find yourself”&nbsp;by going back to your roots?&nbsp;&nbsp;Not quite. I never subject&nbsp;myself to that level of&nbsp;introspection as a filmmaker.&nbsp;The only thing that&nbsp;is important in a film is&nbsp;just the belief in the story.&nbsp;Everything else is immaterial.&nbsp;After Lakshmi, I was making&nbsp;a different film on a boxer,&nbsp;but the original producer&nbsp;pulled out at the last minute.&nbsp;I met Manish Mundra for&nbsp;that film. He liked it, he&nbsp;wanted to do it, but on the&nbsp;way out, I just shared broad&nbsp;strokes of Dhanak with him.&nbsp;He immediately asked me&nbsp;to come back in and share&nbsp;some more details. He said&nbsp;“I promise you we will do&nbsp;the boxing film, but is there&nbsp;any way we can do this&nbsp;film now?” So, you see, it&nbsp;has nothing to do with me&nbsp;planning to do something&nbsp;specific. Like in my films, I am&nbsp;testimony to the randomness&nbsp;of life.&nbsp;<div id="gallery-3"><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/entertainment/cinema/23596-nagesh-kukunoor-is-back-with-his-next-film-dhanak-which-is-already-the-toast-of-the-film-circles/attachment/dhanak-1/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/dhanak_1_360x203_9d145f177b.jpg"></a>&nbsp;			</div>&nbsp;				<figcaption id="gallery-3-23598">&nbsp;				Dhanak &nbsp;				</figcaption></figure><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/entertainment/cinema/23596-nagesh-kukunoor-is-back-with-his-next-film-dhanak-which-is-already-the-toast-of-the-film-circles/attachment/still7/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/still7_360x240_14b6633c99.jpg"></a>&nbsp;			</div>&nbsp;				<figcaption id="gallery-3-23600">&nbsp;				Dor&nbsp;				</figcaption></figure><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/entertainment/cinema/23596-nagesh-kukunoor-is-back-with-his-next-film-dhanak-which-is-already-the-toast-of-the-film-circles/attachment/iqbal-siblings/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Iqbal_siblings_338x240_5c4d1813ad.jpg"></a>&nbsp;			</div></figure>&nbsp;		</div>&nbsp;What do you think of the&nbsp;indie film scene in India?&nbsp;Only two places have always&nbsp;had an indie film culture&nbsp;since the dawn of time —&nbsp;West Bengal and Kerala.&nbsp;Otherwise, the day we went&nbsp;digital, the process was&nbsp;democratised. Everyone&nbsp;would be telling different&nbsp;kinds of stories, even&nbsp;though they might not make&nbsp;their way to the screens.&nbsp;And that is very exciting.&nbsp;Unfortunately, indie films&nbsp;don’t find too many shared&nbsp;public spaces in the country.&nbsp;Making a film is very easy.&nbsp;It is the distribution that is&nbsp;difficult. So much of product&nbsp;is made, but the funnel&nbsp;allows only a few to pass&nbsp;through, so the distributors&nbsp;and exhibitors are the ones&nbsp;calling the shots. They will&nbsp;always determine the tide.&nbsp;While a lot of variety is&nbsp;made, what is let through&nbsp;is well within the realm of&nbsp;commercial cinema.&nbsp;Is it easier working with&nbsp;children than “actors”?&nbsp;My biggest problem working&nbsp;with children is that when&nbsp;I deal with an adult, I can&nbsp;say practically anything.&nbsp;Not so much with a child.&nbsp;Everything that you say&nbsp;or do is being noted. They&nbsp;will take something away&nbsp;from a relationship. With&nbsp;a kid, you have to walk on&nbsp;eggshells. But once you set&nbsp;that aside, you should always&nbsp;deal with kids as adults. I&nbsp;do that always. They sense&nbsp;it immediately, that you&nbsp;are respecting them. These&nbsp;two kids in Dhanak shot&nbsp;for a straight schedule in&nbsp;the blazing Rajasthan heat,&nbsp;without a single whimper.&nbsp;Who are your favourite filmmakers?&nbsp;I am heavily influenced by&nbsp;American film-makers. That&nbsp;is my bedrock. I am still a&nbsp;big fan of Steven Spielberg&nbsp;but also, if I ever had to ape&nbsp;someone, it would be the&nbsp;Coen brothers. Till Iqbal, I&nbsp;used to have a Coen brothers&nbsp;homage shot in all of my&nbsp;films. I also love Steven&nbsp;Soderbergh. I am a huge fan&nbsp;of the second coming of Clint&nbsp;Eastwood.&nbsp;Whose work do you look&nbsp;forward to in India?&nbsp;There was a time when I&nbsp;looked forward to Vishal’s&nbsp;[Bhardwaj] films, but&nbsp;they don’t have the same&nbsp;magic any more. I think his&nbsp;storytelling is lost along&nbsp;the way, there is a need for&nbsp;reinvention. Maqbool and&nbsp;Omkara were fantastic. One&nbsp;of the most spectacularly&nbsp;wonderful films I have seen&nbsp;is Gangs of Wasseypur Part&nbsp;1, but part 2 didn’t work for&nbsp;me at all. Another film that&nbsp;really worked for me was&nbsp;Pan Singh Tomar — but then&nbsp;Bullett Raja happened. So,&nbsp;they are all doing what I&nbsp;did with Iqbal-Dor-Bombay&nbsp;To Bangkok. “Oh, you think&nbsp;you like my work? Wait, let&nbsp;me just pulverize you a little&nbsp;bit.” (Laughs). That joy of&nbsp;looking forward to another&nbsp;film-maker’s work is kind of&nbsp;not there.

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Nagesh Kukunoor was indie even before India knew what indie was and is back with his next film, Dhanak, which is already the toast of the film circles.

3 Deewarein

8x10 Tasveer

Anurag Kashyap

Bullett Raja

cinema

Clint Eastwood

Coen brothers

Dhanak

In Conversation With Nagesh Kukunoor, Director Of National Award Winning Film Dhanak