Jaipur: Stressing that the dissenting citizens were well within their rights under the Constitution to come out and protest, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj said it was unfair on the part of the government to brand people against them as “urban naxals” and “tukde tukde gang”.
Speaking with IANS on the sidelines of the fourth day of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Bhardwaj said, “It wasn’t that they were not protesting before, just that they are on the streets now and showing their anger. It is sad that the current regime has brought us to a point where anyone criticising it is being branded an anti-national.”
Pleased that members of the film community were engaging with the current political discourse, Bhardwaj, supporting Deepika Padukone’s
presence at JNU post violence that broke out at the university a few days back, said, “It is important that all segments of the society make their stand on polarisation clear.”
Comparing the BJP with Congress, the filmmaker said the latter had a bigger heart, though it was just concerned with filling its pockets than bother about criticism. “At least they were not robbing our souls. As far as those condemning the fact that people didn’t protest against them, well the Anna Hazare movement is an excellent example.”
As the conversation veers towards the verbal spat between actors Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher, the filmmaker says it was sad that instead of debating, it had become an ugly controversy. “It shouldn’t have come to that. They both are very senior and highly respected actors.”
Stating that he might think about making a film on the ongoing protest movements sometime later as right now, being part of the movement himself, he wouldn’t be objective. “When you are in close proximity to things, it is tough to have a perspective.”
Talking about the kind of “nationalistic” films being made in the industry in the past decade, Bhardwaj says he doesn’t have a problem with those films, but what matters is the timing of their release. “Releasing movies that bash Pakistan before the elections in order to influence voters towards a particular party does not really feel correct. As far as biopics are concerned, well, they make them so badly that their own workers would fall asleep. Frankly, the right doesn’t have the intellect and aesthetics.”
Even after ‘Omkara’, ‘Maqbool’ and ‘Haider’, Bhardwaj’s obsession with Shakespeare refuses to go away. “I am absolutely in love with his work and not done with it. In fact I plan to work on the trilogy of his comedies.”
