‘Sequels are not my cup of tea’

Do you expect a worldwide audience for ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’? Films that are specifically local become universal. But ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ occupied a more global landscape from the start. It took three years to adapt the novel into a screenplay and it was shot in four continents. I knew I wanted to make the film […]

Do you expect a worldwide audience for ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’?

Films that are specifically local become universal. But ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ occupied a more global landscape from the start. It took three years to adapt the novel into a screenplay and it was shot in four continents.

I knew I wanted to make the film when I visited Lahore in 2004. Although we grew up in Orissa, my father had come from Lahore.  Also, I was tired of films that told the story of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan only from the western perspective. I wanted to tell the story from both sides. This is the reason I started ‘Maisha’ in East Africa. (A centre in Kampala, Uganda, that provides film labs and workshops for aspiring screen-writers, directors, actors, technicians and documentary makers from Africa.)

I grew up in the backdrop of the idealistic discussions on how far art can change the world. I shared those idealistic views. Initially, I was making documentaries on social issues, and moved to fiction when I realized the limited reach of documentaries. I don’t make movies for people to spend a pleasant Sunday afternoon watching. I create roles that have genuine dialogue showing one side and the other in which we understand that we are not the other, but the humanity actually is the great link between both of us.

I strongly believe that in America with the over 250 million people, the Americans don’t want war. They are tired of it. They are tired of the destruction and the mayhem that have happened in the last ten years ever since Bush. We literarily took on this civilization. It has been reinvented and imposed so that all: if you are American you are military; if you are a Muslim you are a terrorist. These kinds of clichés have continually confronted us. What you read about Pakistan in the newspapers: the drones, the be-headings, assassinations; may be that is true, but the heart beat is never there. I was moved to make that story and then when I read Mohsin’s book (Moshin Hamid, Pakistani author of the book on which the film is based) six months later, I craved to make that dialogue between America. I know these worlds and we have never heard our side of the story, only America’s.

How do you engage with social issues through the use of film?

Being someone like myself who really knows both worlds intimately, that gives me the fabric from which to say apart from this film, it was a real charge for me that we must create the bridge, create an understanding that is born out a common humanity but to have this story told with the kind of unflinching look. Not a sentimental look, not a ‘let’s all be the same’ look, but an unflinching look that has within it, love, anguish, norm and the politics of the time.

We mostly hear the stories of the ‘brave American soldiers’ going to war in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, and returning alive or dead, but we are seldom told about the ordeals thousands of people who get killed, or the women who have lost their families in these countries in the name of this war for democracy.

We have been getting stereotyped images of US citizens being soldiers fighting for democracy in different parts of the world and the Muslims being terrorists. There is a need to get out of these stereotypes and to start a dialogue between the people of America and the Muslim countries. This divide was reinforced acutely with the statement the then US president, George Bush, who said that ‘if you are not with us you are with them’. The Americans themselves are fed up with these wars which cause colossal damage to humanity.

I had wanted to make a film on the divide between Americans and Muslims in the post 9/11 since 2004, when I visited Pakistan. This was my film which took the longest time (five years) to make. The editing of this film, which was shot in four continents with prominent stars from different regions, itself, took about one year. But I’m happy that every frame of the film has come out the way I wanted, despite the numerous challenges we faced including shortage of finances.

Are you thinking of doing sequels to ‘Salam Bombay’ and ‘Monsoon Wedding’?

I actually haven’t thought of a sequel for both movies. The only sequel I’ve sort of explored is the sequel of ‘Monsoon Wedding’, because I always wondered what would happen to ‘Alice’ and ‘Dubey’; are they   together or what are they doing?

Actually, I am doing that in a way, because my next project is a musical stage version of ‘Monsoon Wedding’. It is first designed for Broadway and then for the world. We are in the midst of that right now. Sabrina Dhawan (the script writer) will have a role to play for the stage. It will have 12 songs. We have six songs done and are recording four more next month. By April next year we will start rehearsals.

‘Monsoon Wedding’ adaptation is a big thing for me. The movie was loved by many. I am working with Vishal Bhardwaj (the director-composer) and it’s my version just like it was in the movie. The stage is going to be spectacular. It isn’t really a sequel, but it is another vocabulary to treat a very beloved film like ‘Monsoon Wedding’.

Life is short, and so I like to do new things with big risks. Sequels, hmmmm, not quite my cup of tea. Let other people stick to sequels. I like to do things that make my heart beat and make me wonder if I can actually do it. That risk taking is what makes me keep going on.

Do you think you have become ‘too big’ to make films like ‘Salaam Bombay!’ again?

I don’t think so. Big budget studios approached me after the success of ‘Monsoon Wedding’, and that was Indian.

Why are you participating at the IFFI?

I am fiercely Desi and because my roots are strong, I can fly. It always feels good to bring my movies home. We have opened the movie at all the major festivals – Toronto, London, Venice – but I can’t live without bringing it home. It was really important for me to come here and I am very happy and waiting for people to see the film.