From the days of silent, black-and-white films, there has been tremendous progress in every aspect of filmmaking. Even the numbers have grown exponentially. Tens of thousands of feature films, documentaries, TV serials, and commercials are made every year, making it an industry worth billions of dollars.

But the one thing that hasn’t changed is the waste generation and the silent damage to the environment! It is in the use of plastics on props and sets, and smoke from action-packed scenes, increasing carbon footprints by the globetrotting crew.

Sadly, including the viewer, no one notices or talks about this.

“Cinema can fill in the empty spaces of your life,” said Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, known for films like Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, High heels etc.

He aptly described the role of cinema in our lives. Producers of this profit-making industry will go to any length to ensure that the celluloid world transports us into a Utopia.

For any historical film, huge sets are maintained in a pristine condition until the shoot is complete. Artificial and aesthetic weapons are made. It is reported that for the epic fight scenes in the film Baahubali, nearly 10,000 weapons consisting of swords, helmets, and armour, were created. To make them lightweight, production designer Sabu Cyril got them made in carbon fibre instead of steel, which is recyclable, whereas carbon fibre isn’t.

What happens to the temporary sets or other paraphernalia once the shooting is complete?

“With minute detail, we had constructed the replica of a Boeing 747 plane which was hijacked in 1986, for the film Neerja,” says Aparna Sud, the production designer. Since the film was released in 2016, the ‘aeroplane’ has been lying in a heap in Nitin Desai’s famous ND film studio near Mumbai.

Sud has won several awards, including the Filmfare, Zee Cine Award, and an International Indian Film Academy Award for this film’s production design. Although she loves her job, she regrets the waste generated by her work.

“At the end of the shoot, we just pay Rs 3,500 per truck of waste, and our responsibility ends! Some items like iron and wood may be retrieved by the kabadiwalas, but the rest of that waste goes to landfills,” accepts the set designer.

Like other production designers, she too retrieves many items from her sets and stores them to be used in other shoots later.

Another award-winning production designer, Sukant Panigrahy, says, “Many times, I tried to initiate a dialogue with the officers at the Film City (Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari) in Mumbai about starting a waste management centre on the premises. But the talks never concluded. Even when I was working with Yash Raj Films, I tried; the problem was accepted, but it was never given serious thought.”

Art director and designer of films like Chak De! India, Dev D, Tashan, Ek Tha Tiger, Panigrahy has started waste recycling in his capacity. More than a design director, he wishes to be known as an installation artist and collects reusable items like pipes, nuts, bolts, and flex sheets from his film sets. Some of these were displayed at the 2013 Kala Ghoda Art Festival in Mumbai.

Set materials like Flex sheets aren’t recyclable and damage the environment extensively. They are painted, used as backdrops on film sets and name boards for shops or advertising hoardings. They are made of PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) and don’t decompose.

Other items used in large quantities are plastic cups, plates, small mineral water bottles, hand tissues used in makeup and supari packet wrappers.

Besides these materials, carbon footprints are added when the crew goes on location hunting or visit the location to shoot. Large generators are used, and the damage is greater in an action film due to the use of smoke, which harms the air quality.

“We have to accept that some kind of waste will be generated on the film sets, with damage to the environment, but the new trend is to minimise the damage as much as possible. A lot of things depend on the story; for example, if the story is based abroad, then one has to fly. But that part is minimised if it is based in India,” explains Ravi Popat. He’s the award-winning art director of the Gujarati film, Hellaro.

Luckily for Popat, Hellaro’s story was Kutch-based. So, he used local material to build 15 Bhungas (traditional houses of Kutch, Gujarat) and labourers, with minimal waste.

Another new trend is to rent equipment from local outlets even when shooting abroad, except cameras. Even the support crew and actors are hired locally. This not only cuts costs but also reduces travel miles. The crew, including directors and actors, have also started replacing plastic water bottles with flasks which are refilled from common storage units.

To reduce travel miles and damage to the environment, big guns in the industry with no financial restraints, use VFX (visual effects) and CGI (computer-generated imagery) to get the required effect. For example, 90 per cent of the action and scenic beauty of Baahubali was created on VFX.

“There is increasing use of this technique. And if done well, only experts can identify that it is not a real location. We have expertise but fall short on finances. Hollywood films have immense budgets which help their films look better with these new techniques,” says Ramesh Meer, the chief creative director and CEO of the FX Factory.

In nearly five decades, he has made hundreds of films, including Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Pardes, Don and television serials and commercials.

Meer agrees that the increasing use of VFX and CGI will reduce the damage to our environment. In fact, in the latest film, War, a majority of the chase scenes between Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the Arctic Circle were done on VFX and CGI.

Although many in India are using this technique, others are strapped for finances and depend on real location shooting. And they are the ones who need to be careful.

Meer says that VFX and CGI will be preferred if budgets are increased, which will help decrease the waste and carbon footprints.

Also Read: Here’s Why These Mumbai Scriptwriters & Engineers Become Idol-Makers Once a Year!

In Hollywood, special NGOs like the Ecoset and Earth Angles are hired by filmmakers to manage their waste. The Indian film industry needs to wake up. People like Sud, Panigrahy, Popat are willing to work, and all they need is a little help from the film fraternity.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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‘Black Lives Matter’ protests broke out across the USA last week after a Caucasian police officer’s action resulted in the death of a black man, George Floyd. Floyd’s death is widely-attributed to racism in America, which has seen hundreds of such cases over the decades.

These protests slowly spread to other countries like the UK and Australia.

Meanwhile, in India, after many celebrities tweeted their support for ‘Black Lives Matter’, the widespread colour discrimination that exists in India took centre stage.

However, the condemns and appeals backfired, especially in cases of those who had endorsed fairness creams in the past. Many pointed out how celebrities with a huge fan base were setting wrong examples by promoting a change in skin-tone if you are dark.

Actor Abhay Deol too called out actors for their ‘wokeness’ in a series of Facebook posts highlighting the taglines of beauty products which include ‘white glow’, ‘fine fairness’, and so on. 

“Fairness creams in India have evolved over the years, from being fairness creams to now using euphemisms like “skin brightening/ whitening”, or “lightening creams”. Most brands no longer want to be associated directly with being termed as ‘fairness creams’. So now we have brands selling “HD glow”, “White beauty”, “white glow”, “fine fairness”, and so on,” he wrote. 

India’s obsession with fair skin has prevailed for a long time (some even call it a colonial hangover). The widely held belief that beauty is directly proportional to how fair you are is reiterated through customs, matrimonial ads, beauty product ads, and films.

In fact, one of my colleagues at The Better India narrated how she was asked to stand in the last line of her school choir when she was barely ten because of her skin colour. 

So, how does one get rid of the deep-rooted mindset without witnessing a brutal attack like the one in Minneapolis? Does India too need its own ‘Black Lives Matter’ to awaken the masses?

Probably one way to start is by standing up against skin-toning endorsements considering India’s fandom with celebrities. Something as simple as refusing a fairness product ad will send out a strong message to millions of Indians who look up to celebs.

And this isn’t to imply that no actor has spoken against the blatant privilege of fairness. 

Here are ten Indian actors who stood their ground and refused to propagate that having a fair skin is a gateway to success and emphasised that all colours are equal. 

1) Ranbir Kapoor

Indicating that actions speak louder than words, one of the reigning superstars of our country, Ranbir Kapoor, reportedly refused to collaborate with a fairness cream company. Though he did not openly make any statement against fairness brands, he let his action do the work. 

He turned down an offer of whopping Rs 9 crore for a day’s shoot as per the report.

This was at a time when the actor had already established his position in the film industry. He could have taken the offer but he stood for what he believed. 

2) Taapsee Pannu

She is one of the rare actors who does not mince her words and stands for what is right. Among all her fearless opinions, an event in 2017 won many hearts. The actor pulled out of an event as soon as she realised that it was being sponsored by a fairness brand.

“I agree it was a last-minute call, but when I found out that I would have to pose at the event with fairness brand in the background, I decided to take my name off the event. I have actually lost quite a few films because of being fair, so I will not propagate fairness in any way,” she told Hindustan Times.  

Ironically, the event in Jaipur was about propagating women’s rights! 

3) Kubbra Sait

When successful actors think twice about their brand image or rubbing big companies on the wrong side, Kubbra Sait does not shy away from being vocal.

Known for her role in Sacred Games, this fairly new actor, not only openly refused to associate with a product but also used her position to bring about a change. She refused to retouch her skin while shooting for an ad. 

Reacting to Abhay Deol’s post, she commented, “I can speak for me. when the brand … approached me to be a part of their campaign, I was excited. When I saw the list of products, we spoke amongst ourselves. Masaba (Gupta), Kusha Kapila and I. We spoke to the brand as one team and refused to be tagged with the products that had anything related to brightening/lightening of the skin. Even the digital cover we did was not a retouched photograph.”

4) Nandita Das 

Actor-director Nandita Das has been known for criticising Indian’s obsession with fairness. Time and again, she has called out the film industry’s pre-conceived notions about having a fair person in the lead role.

“When there is a role of a rural woman, or a Dalit woman, or the role of a slum-dweller, then my skin colour is fine. But the minute I have to play an educated, upper-middle-class character, invariably someone comes up to me and says ‘I know you don’t like to lighten your skin, but you know this role is of an upper-middle-class educated person’,” she says.

Several years ago, Nandita Das launched a campaign called ‘Dark Is Beautiful’ to end prejudices against dark skin colour. She even came out with a 2.5-minute powerful video titled India’s Got Colour. 

5) Kalki Koechlin

Kalki Koechlin is another actor known for her unconventional roles and outspoken public presence.

When a fairness brand approached Kalki, she turned them down as she believes that beauty is not to be associated with skin colour.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with being fair, but it has become such an obsession in our country that it is all we look for in beauty. There are so many stunning people who are dark-skinned and it should be celebrated. I would love to have a product that makes me darker,” she told Hindustan Times. 

6) Tannishtha Chatterjee

Making jokes or passing casual remarks about issues that affect our society is not okay. It is important to understand that one cannot get away with racist comments in the name of humour. It is important to point it out and the ensure is not repeated and that’s exactly what actor Tannishtha Chatterjee did in 2016. 

She lashed out against a comedy show called Comedy Nights Bachao, which airs on Colors TV, after being at the receiving end of racist jokes about her skin colour.

“I was actually looking forward to be roasted… the only thing they could roast about a dark-skinned actress was of course her dark skin. They could identify me only with that. I could not believe I was sitting in a nationally televised comedy show in 2016 in Mumbai amid such regressive (I can’t call it humour), and blatantly racist content,” she wrote.

“Even considering that dark skin is a joke comes from that very deep prejudice. And I tried to explain why this is not personal and it is a larger issue about what our mindset is. And why cracking jokes about deep biases in our society is irresponsible. And that it is not a question about apologizing to me, but propagating this idea and continuing with this mindset in the name of comedy is what is hugely problematic, specially because it is a popular show on a nationalized Chanel,” she added. 

7) Sai Pallavi

“This is Indian colour. We can’t go to foreigners and ask them why they’re white, and if they know that they will get cancer because of it. We can’t look at them and think we want that. That’s their skin colour and this is ours. Africans have their own colour too and they are beautiful,” said South Indian actress Sai Pallavi on rejecting an ad to promote a fairness cream. 

Pallavi, who subjected her sister to eating certain fruits and veggies to get a ‘fair complexion’ in her childhood, rejected a Rs 2-crore advertisement, thus putting a strong message in south India’s film fraternity, where white skin is an obsession. 

“I’ve tricked Pooja (her sister) several times. She liked cheeseburgers and had a complex that she wasn’t as fair as I am. When we stood in front of a mirror, she would look at my face and then at hers. I noticed this several times. So I told her that if she wanted to become fair, she should eat fruits and vegetables. And she did. She doesn’t like fruits and vegetables at all but she still ate them because she wanted to be fair. I felt very bad about that, the impact it had on a girl five years younger than me,” the actor said. 

8) Sona Mohapatra

Calling out fairness cream brands for their regressive and deeply disturbing nature, Singer Sona Mohapatra recently hailed the government’s decision to propose a bill banning racist ads.

The singer shared how she had stood her ground against launching a baby care product around fair babies when she was working as a brand manager for a leading FMCG firm.

“Many years ago when I was a brand manager for a leading FMCG firm that was on the verge of launching a new baby care range, once again the positioning idea for the brand’s campaign that was being presented most strongly by the consumer research teams was around ‘fair babies’. I remember putting my foot down and refusing to sanction that campaign despite a lot of people in the team trying to convince me about how we need to give the consumer what they want and that it was my job to be most concerned about the best business and most money that the company could make. Truth is there is something called corporate responsibility and even individual conscience and consumerism cannot fuel all our decisions,” she said. 

9) Anushka Sharma 

It is not easy to sail against the tide in our film industry but Anushka Sharma has always taken the unconventional route. When it came to the topic of fairness cream, she did not back step. Instead, she admitted that she would never promote such products. 

“I would not endorse products that propagate racist and sexiest (beliefs)….and propagate social taboo. I don’t want to endorse products that propagate fair skin and all. I will not propagate anything that says this is right or wrong,” Anushka Sharma said at an event of a leading shampoo brand.

10) Sonal Sehgal

When actor Sonal Sehgal shifted to Mumbai to act in the glamour industry, she was a part of an ad for a fairness cream. She took up the ad that paid her house rent. However, soon she realised her problematic decision after her domestic help asked her which cream would make her look fairer. 

“I suddenly understood that I had failed Gangu (domestic help) and millions of gorgeous, dusky women across the country, including my own sister, by becoming a part of the mafia that undermines their self-esteem,” she told The Logical Indian. 

After working in a few films, she went to New York and studied filmmaking, but the domestic help’s question never left her and on her return, she made a short film, ‘Dancing In The Dark’. The film exposes the fairness cream market and its prejudices against dark-skinned people.

With these Indian actors publicly questioning the implications of unhealthy colour obsession and skewed notions of beauty, there is a way to educate people and bring about a change.

It is high time we cut out the racism that all of us are a part of.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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In all honesty, the first time I had ever heard of legendary playwright, director and producer Satyadev Dubey was not through one of his plays, but an interview veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal gave to Cinestaan in June 2017. Funnily enough, the interview wasn’t even about Dubey, but the actor Amrish Puri and how he used the money earned from commercial films to fund standout theatre groups like the Mumbai-based Theatre Unit.

“He [Amrish Puri] had become a popular star and villain in commercial films. This is where the money came from. But he helped a lot of people with that money. He kept the poor Theatre Unit going. When Satyadev Dubey would do a play, the production was paid for by Amrish. Nobody knew that was happening,” said Shyam Benegal.

Reading this quote, I thought to myself ‘who is this Satyadev Dubey’? Why would one of the all time great actors take the trouble of paying for this man’s production? What was it about Satyadev Dubey that elicited such kindness and loyalty from one of the all time great actors? What ensued was a frantic Google search about this unique personality. I found hundreds of tributes, remembrances, anecdotes and even an obituary in The New York Times dedicated to Satyadev Dubey, who was fondly known as ‘Dubey Ji’ to many.

A simple Google Search opened my eyes to a figure, who trained and inspired generations of Indian actors including Amrish Puri, Amol Palekar, Nasseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Govind Nihalani, Sulabha Deshpande, Mohan Bhandari, Harish Patel, Sonali Kulkarni and even Akshaye Khanna before he began acting in films. He also inspired and continues to inspire generations of playwrights, directors and producers.

Born into an upper-caste family in Bilaspur on 13 July, 1936, Dubey had aspirations of becoming a cricket player while studying at a Mumbai college in the early 1950s. All that changed when he was introduced to theatre and began acting in Theatre Unit, a Mumbai troupe run by director Ebrahim Alkazi.

When Alkazi left to take over the National School of Drama in Delhi by the early 1960s, Dubey took over the reins and produced a series of plays including “Andha Yug”, an anti-war Hindi play written by Dharamvir Bharati and “Yayati”, a Kannada play written by Girish Karnad which was translated into Hindi with Amrish Puri in a lead role.

These plays would go on to change the landscape of modern theatre in India.

As the man responsible for reviving and modernising Hindi theatre through the 1960s and 1970s, he was a key actor in creating a pan-Indian theatre consciousness by producing plays translated from different Indian languages like Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi. He was a man ruthlessly brilliant in his commitment to theatre.

But there were two things I still wanted to know about Dubey Ji. Was Shyam Benegal’s anecdote about Amrish Puri and Dubey Ji true? Also, what was it about Dubey Ji that elicited such kindness and loyalty? In my search for persons who could offer me an insight into the man’s life, I found his grandson Satyajeet Dubey, an actor, on Instagram.

Sending him a direct message on Instagram, I asked him whether Shyam Benegal’s assertions about his grandfather were true. After waiting for over a day, he responded in the affirmative, but added that he didn’t know much about the entire affair. Instead he pointed me towards one of Dubey Ji’s students and acclaimed theatre actor Hidayat Sami.

Besides offering me some unique insights into how Dubey Ji trained his actors, Sami didn’t really have in-depth answers to my questions about the Amrish Puri anecdote. He said that this had happened well before his time on stage and association with Dubey Ji.

Instead, he was kind enough to get me in touch with two people who shared a very close relationship with Dubey Ji—legendary theatre director, thespian and protege Sunil Shanbag and Lata Sharma, an actor and a close confidant.

Speaking to both of them, it’s evident that Dubey Ji left an indelible impression on so many lives. Maybe this is how he inspired such loyalty from the likes of Amrish Puri.

“Even when Puri Saab wasn’t a very successful film actor, his deep sense of loyalty to Dubey was always there. He always supported Dubey regardless of whether it was with money or any other way. Whenever Puri Saab had time, he would personally come for a performance, sit backstage with us and meet us after the show. His loyalty and support went much beyond just the financial assistance he would offer every now and then,” says Sunil Shanbag, in an exclusive conversation with The Better India.

“There are three generations of actors who have trained under him. Many of them have gone on to become successful actors. Once again, it depends on how you define success. Some have successfully transitioned into mainstream cinema, while others continue to perform on stage till this day and are doing very well because of their skill and craft,” he adds.

But what was it about Dubey Ji that elicited such love, respect and loyalty?

Satyadev Dubey, the man

“Dubey was a total maverick with amazing foresight who was way ahead of his time,” recalls Lata Sharma with a tone of nostalgia emanating from her voice. “Although he had a very short temper which mellowed with age, he was a father figure to all of us.”

If he saw potential in anyone, which they may not have recognized it themselves, he went all out to ensure that they made the most of their inherent skills. He was usually bang on about identifying that potential and was willing to give his time, energy and patience, she recalls.

However, it’s his selflessness as a teacher which really stood out, according to Sharma. Since Dubey’s needs were so limited, there was never a commercial angle to any work he did. This was also reflected in his simple living situation. Sharma speaks of how he had just one mattress on the floor, a chair and a wall of books lining his room.

“It’s nearly impossible to keep track of the number of notable actors and actresses he taught. Dubey Ji held workshops for free distributing passages to anyone that walked in and asked them to memorize it. He would teach impromptu exercises to improve their speech, stance and posture. There were spaces like the Prithvi Theatre, which back in the 1970s was a lot quieter than it’s today. At a cafe there, he would host these workshops once a week. Nearly 25-30 people came there, consisting of struggling actors and actresses or people who just wanted a little more confidence to face situations in their professional lives,” she recalls.

Major actors, who had crossed over into mainstream cinema, would willingly offer their assistance, money or time to Dubey for his productions in whatever capacity. That also comes from the fact many of them are actors from the National School of Drama (NSD).

Every year for a number of years, he was invited by NSD to do a production with final year students. Casting them in his plays and seeing their potential, Dubey never failed in mentioning their names to his friends in the film industry. He would recommend their names to people in the industry or just state them in passing during a gathering of people who matter that they should watch for this young man or woman coming out of NSD.

“Many of these actors got their major break or a foot in the door while approaching filmmakers or production houses because of his recommendation. A lot of them may or may not acknowledge it, but deep down each one of them knows how much Dubey Ji’s words mattered. That is something which I think makes them grateful. If they remembered that, somewhere along the line they would have liked to repay him. But there was nothing material they could give him in return because his personal needs were minimal although he occasionally enjoyed his glass of Blue Label whiskey,” recalls Sharma.

Dubey’s purpose was always set towards furthering the gospel of theatre.

“Dubey Ji’s personality was such that whenever he needed help, he was never embarrassed to ask. And he always asked for help on his own terms. For example, if a performance was coming up and the advertising would cost Rs 15,000, he would ask you to pay the advertising company directly, and not deposit the money with him. You have a long list of people who have always stepped in to help pay for food during rehearsals or donate cushions, toys or other household items for the set because he had this uncanny ability to bring people together. I personally know Nasseruddin Shah always stepped in to help in any capacity whenever he was called upon. He touched people who worked with him in a way few can describe. Not many people would ever refuse to help him,” says Shanbag.

Dubey’s Gharana of Acting

At the heart of this gratitude that many of his students and contemporaries offered was his dedicated approach to his craft. His theatre centred around words and texts. What always fascinated him was the world of words and ideas. A lot of his training centred around these elements.

“As actors, we were trained very rigorously in the way we spoke the words and how we extracted meaning from them. That was the fundamental basis of his training and all the technical aspects that went into that. Besides, his was a very minimal sort of theatre. He didn’t depend too much on set design, lighting, costumes, etc. For him, the primary focus was the actor and the text and everything that went with these elements was at the core of his training. You would find that most of the young actors who trained under him articulate the text in a very particular way independent of the language,” says Shanbag.

There was a certain formality in the way his actors articulated their text. In fact, there was a criticism at one point that all Dubey-trained actors are the same. But that’s how the training was and it was a school of theatre in itself like a Gharana in classical Indian music.

“Dubey Ji also had an extremely sharp ear and a great sense of editing text. He was a master of choreography as a director. By choreography, I don’t mean movement or dance choreography, but the ability to move actors on stage to create a parallel narrative. His choreography added another layer to the text. Movements on stage in a Dubey production were never superfluous because they always added something to what the text was trying to say. He was a very demanding taskmaster. Everything was very rigorous with him. Nothing was done casually. Even conversations were intense and passionate with him,” he adds.

Since there was so much emphasis on actors, text and movement on stage, Dubey’s theatre was minimalistic in its own right as well. Most theatre functions under limited resources. Often, necessity becomes a virtue. You don’t have money for lighting, sets and costumes, but have actors and text, and they become the fundamental pillars of your work. Naturally, as a producer you concentrate on what’s available–actors and a script.

“See, the thing is his sets were never elaborate. He would sometimes get a friend or acquaintance looking to catch a break in the industry as a set designer to design it for him. To obtain funds that would help him execute the set design, he would write an ad, do a bit role in films, write a lot of dialogue and screenplays,” says Sharma.

Just so that we know, he won the 1978 National Film Award for Best Screenplay for Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bhumika’ and 1980 Filmfare Best Dialogue Award for ‘Junoon’.

“Dubey Ji never looked to earn money in the conventional sense. If he needed it, the money would come from a short gig he would take up or from somewhere else. Also, you have to note that the scale of theatre productions were much more modest back in the 1960s and 70s. Today, it’s very difficult for small groups to survive,” she recalls.

People are today making a living out of theatre, which wasn’t really the case 40 years ago. Dubey never looked at how he could recover the money on his production or how long it should run, etc. He would often say in these times ‘chalna hoga toh chalega’.

“In those days, smaller towns and cities invited a lot of theatre groups from Bombay. We got some money, but otherwise it was like a picnic and sometimes that money would be kept aside for the next production. Today, theatre productions begin with the budget, before one can even contemplate a reading of the play,” says Sharma.

Pan-India Theatre

A great conversationalist, his acquaintances often say that he loved to get into discussions, enjoyed sharing his excitement of a piece of theatre he had seen or read, always dreamt up a new project or organised a reading of a new play someone wrote. He loved the energy of being with people. Invariably, he was the focal point of a lot of get-togethers.

Back in the 1970s, when film producer Vinod Doshi gave him the entire ground floor of Walchand Terrace in Tardeo for four years as a rehearsal space, it turned into a great meeting point for all the legends of theatre at that time.

At a time when communicating with people across cities wasn’t so easy, he would ask for scripts from Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, would organise translation of these scripts often in Hindi and many of them would get produced on stage. In fact, he was one of the key persons in informing actors in Mumbai that they weren’t working in isolation, but were part of a contemporary and blossoming pan-India scene.

“Dubey Ji often travelled around different cities like Kolkata and Delhi and had friends there. In Kolkata, for example, he had friends like Shyamanand Jalan. In Delhi, he would meet Rajinder Paul. They would call him up and say ‘hey, we found this very interesting script by Badal Babu (Badal Sarkar) and you must read it’. Dubey Ji would invariably respond by asking for the script, get it translated, organise readings and made available to any director in Bombay interested in producing this play,” argues Shanbag.

What would have otherwise been restricted to Bengal now moves to another part of the country, available in translation (mostly Hindi) and directors from various parts of India produce it. These plays moved around India. This is before the days of easy phone calls, emails or any of it. It was indeed a laborious process.

Dubey Ji worked with plays from so many different languages translated in Hindi, of course, whether it’s from Europe, Bengal or Karnataka and produce them from Hindi adaptation of Albert Camus’s “Cross Purpose” and Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” to Girish Karnad’s “Hayavadana” and Vijay Tendulkar’s “Khamosh! Adalat Jaari Hai”.

There is no question he created this theatrical sensibility that went well beyond Mumbai.

Shanta Gokhale, a noted writer and theatre historian, who has also written a book documenting his outstanding work called ‘Satyadev Dubey: A Fifty-Year Journey Through Theatre’, best describes this particular aspect, when she writes,

“Satyadev Dubey made his theatre in Mumbai the crucible of a pan-Indian, pan-world theatre consciousness by producing plays translated from different Indian and European languages. This cross-pollination gave audiences the first glimmer of a larger Indian theatre sensibility. To date he is credited with directing and producing over a hundred theatre productions in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English, many of which are considered landmarks in modern Indian theatre. The influence of his style of theatre can be found across the country.”

Legacy

He passed away on December 25, 2011 at the age of 75 in Mumbai, but it’s virtually impossible to encapsulate the legacy he leaves behind. He touched people’s hearts in so many different ways.

For Lata Sharma, who acted in only two of his plays but also took care of everything in his personal life from finances, health, and doctor visits, Dubey was a father figure.

“To someone else he was something else. He was a confidant, counsellor and so much more. And not everyone became actors out of their interactions with him, but they sure became better people. His influence went way beyond theatre. He was a friend, guide and mentor to lots of people who often gave sound advice on their regular lives. A man with a patient ear, Dubey Ji wasn’t judgmental and that’s what made him such a wonderful human being. I think those facets went along being a legendary theatre personality,” recalls Sharma.

From not knowing anything at all about Satyadev Dubey, I had moved to a place where I sort of understood why many legendary actors held him in such high regard. There is a lot more to learn about Dubey Ji, and in all honesty, this is only the beginning.

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

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When you talk about Adil Hussain, the first thing that comes to mind is the sheer range of characters he can embody. He can seamlessly pull off playing characters ranging from a suave Commissioner of Police in the Netflix web series Delhi Crime to a rickshaw puller scrounging for a living in Ranchi in the Prakash Jha-directed film Pareeksha.

Speaking to The Better India over a video call from Scotland, where he is shooting a film, Adil describes how he captured the accent, demeanour and behaviour of a good-hearted rickshaw puller from Ranchi called Buchi Paswan, who does whatever it takes to ensure his son, Bulbul, has access to quality private school education.

“With great training, you understand physical and inner flexibility or adaptability to different body languages. That’s the fundamental training of an actor. When I say inner flexibility I mean the flexibility of your ideas, beliefs, emotions, worldview and morals. As an actor, you have to let go of them so that you can move from one role to the other in the spectrum of characters between Hitler and Jesus Christ. All of us fall within that spectrum,” says Adil.

However, he also grew up watching rickshaw pullers as a young child growing up in the small town of Goalpara, Assam, as the youngest of seven children in his household. In Goalpara, the prime mode of transportation was cycle rickshaws. His next door neighbour had rented out their hut to a rickshaw puller from Bihar.

“I remember his name, smell and demeanour. His name was Noor Mohammed Bhai, and he used to give me free rides. I would even go with him to the mechanic shop to fix his rickshaw. As far as the accent goes, I grew up listening to so many people from Bihar, who would come for work in Assam and still do till this day. They would do the odd jobs that Assamese people wouldn’t, which is actually hard work,” he recalls.

What Adil could also relate to was the economic hardships that his character in Pareeksha, Buchi Paswan, undergoes. “We grew up in a very humble household. We had land but very little cash. My father was a school teacher, who gave up the job, and became a Muslim marriage registrar with no fixed salary at all. There were days when we ate dry rotis and tea without milk since we couldn’t afford it,” recalls Adil.

Also, his father could only afford to pay for the college education of two of his eldest sons who studied law in Guwahati University. In 1982, when it was Adil’s turn to go to college, his father had retired and could only give him Rs 250 to study philosophy at B Borooah College, Guwahati.

“This amount was nothing even back then. Thus, playing the role of a poor rickshaw puller wasn’t very far from either my reality or the people I observed around me. Also, I have always been very curious and interested about accents. Since Class 7 onwards, I was a mimic actor who performed on stage. So, I had a good ear for accents as well,” he says.

Early Days on Stage

During his time in college, Adil started acting in college plays and performing as a satirist in street plays. He also mimicked popular Hindi film actors in between the performances of a local street theatre group engaged in political satire called the Bhaya Mama Group.

“There were four of us in the group and it was fearless political satire. Some people even say that we were covertly responsible for the fall of two State governments. We criticised the hell out of these governments, but with a lot of love, respect and humour. We knew these politicians very well, often referring to them as ‘Dada’ (Elder Brother). It was like criticising my elder brother for things he was doing wrong. We had the courage to do it,” says Adil.

In their pieces of political satire, they had a lot of characters to create the drama. Adil was responsible for the mimicry part and also two characters that they made up. In their performances, the Bhaya Mama Group would speak about the prevailing socio-political conditions and comment on them. The structure of the narrative, however, was based on a traditional folk form called Oja-Pali, which satirists would perform in front of kings and queens in ancient times. These performers would comment on the political situation through a melodious presentation, and would even criticise kings and queens.

So, the narrative of the Bhaya Mama Group’s performances was based on the Oja-Pali folk form, but instead of singing, they spoke. The narrative revolved around two characters — Gogoi and Bhaya Mama. While Bhaya Mama asked questions, Gogoi answered, and then they would call different characters on stage and interview them.

“It was so much fun. I did this for five years until I left for the National School of Drama in May 1990. During this time, I did a lot of mimicry and invented many new characters. Simultaneously, I did films, theatre, television, radio plays, street plays, video films and tele films. You name any form or discipline of the performing arts, and I have done it. However, when I began looking at myself, I realised acting is a serious craft that I needed to learn. Fortunately, when I landed at NSD, I already knew my weaknesses as an actor. So, my questions were very different from other actors who didn’t do as much,” he says.

In Delhi, Adil began his stage career, while also continuing to receive training from some of the most distinguished figures in Indian theatre including Khalid Tyabji and Dilip Shankar.

What did he learn from his gurus?

“It would take months for me to articulate what I learnt from them, but I will give you a little insight. The actor’s instrument is the body and whatever is within it. It’s imperative to understand the instrument you’re playing. While a guitarist has her guitar, she has to tune it and keep it clean for future performances. For the actor, the player and instrument are rolled into one. I have to understand how this instrument works. How do emotions work? How do nerves work, how each and every muscle has its own memory, and how breath is related to emotions. You breathe in a certain way because you feel in a certain way. When you’re angry, your breath is the first thing that gets affected. If you see something outside which is undesirable, the breath is the first thing which gets affected. That breath leads you to feel in a certain way. It’s about acquiring an intimate understanding of these dynamics,” he says.

After NSD, he studied at the Drama Studio London on a Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship for a year before returning to India in 1994.

Besides receiving much acclaim for his theatrical performances, which included the Edinburgh Fringe First award in Scotland, he also trained actors at the Society for Artists and Performers in Hampi (2004 to 2007) and was also visiting faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Performing Arts in The Hague, Netherlands, and NSD.

However, during this time, he also began acting in more mainstream film productions like the period drama Iti Srikanta opposite Soha Ali Khan, which was in Bengali.

He also did a series of Assamese films and small roles in the Hindi Film Industry like Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey (2009). However, it was his role in the 2010 film Ishqiya, where he acted alongside high-calibre Hindi actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan, when he got the attention of more mainstream filmmakers.

Since then, he hasn’t looked back performing in landmark films like English Vinglish opposite Sridevi (2012), Lootera (2013), Umrika (2015), Delhi Crime (2018) and even mainstream films like Agent Vinod, Kabir Singh and Force 2.

Of course, there are his mainstream films in other regional languages as well like Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi and Malayalam. But it’s his international projects that garnered him greater recognition like in Italian director Italo Spinelli’s Gangor, Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and the Norwegian film What Will People Say, which was Norway’s entry to the Oscars in 2018.

But what was that transition like from serious theatre to mainstream films? What is the difference between acting on stage and in front of a film camera?

Listen to how he articulates that difference in this clip.

“Adil is someone who has spent a long time developing his craft, and as a consequence, knows and understands it very well. It’s a massive deal for artists from the Northeast to see a person from a small town like Goalpara, reach the heights both in national and international cinema. Another thing which is very impressive is how he keeps himself fit. It takes a lot of effort to stay fit and remain good looking on screen like he does. In my opinion, he is the complete actor,” says fellow actor Kenny Basumatary, who worked with him in the 2014 Assamese film Raag directed by Rajni Basumatary.

Acting in Multiple Languages

Adil has starred in films spread across a multitude of languages, although he claims to be fluent in only four languages.

Thankfully, he says, the scripts come beforehand, and so one understands each and every word spoken. As an actor, one learns the nuances of the dialect, accents and the rest.

“When it comes to French films, for example, they pay you well, give you time to learn the language and pay for those lessons as well. So, you have the time, you sit, learn, prepare, go to the set and enjoy the process. Language and accents are among the most mysterious phenomena in human civilisation. When you speak a language, you understand a community’s psychological state of being. When you speak a language, the accent and sound, it makes you feel a certain way. So, my training as an actor is also to discover the meaning of the word through its sound. When you utter the word with the right phonetics, you also feel the meaning rather than merely understand it intellectually. It bypasses your intelligence and becomes an experiential understanding rather than an intellectual understanding and I am way more fond of the former,” says Adil.

Cultural Differences

When asked about the difference between acting for domestic filmmakers versus the likes of Ang Lee and Mira Nair, Adil does not delve into direct comparisons, but answers the question in terms of how one sees the world.

In this regards, he talks about his father, Zaharul Haque Md Muhiuddin, who despite living in a small town all his life was among the most ‘liberal persons’ he had ever met. Adil speaks about one particularly valuable lesson he learnt from his father, an atheist, when he was in Class 5.

“I came home one day telling father that my Arabic teacher wanted me to shave the hair inside my nose, armpits and pubic hair, whereas science books spoke of how nose hair blocks dust and saves us from viruses. When I asked him what I should do, he told me not to trust either science or religion, but find out for myself. His philosophy was experiment, find out whether it’s true or not and then accept it, but otherwise doubt everything. Similarly, he told me later that I could marry whoever I liked from whatever community and how she’ll be accepted by the family regardless,” he recalls.

In terms of cinema, Adil believes that when a creator’s worldview is broader, more liberal and can approach the truth from multiple dimensions and perspectives, then one makes a better film which will have a global impact. Attitudes like his father’s in the domestic film industry, he believes, are the exception, rather than the norm.

“We have a bunch of unbelievably talented people working on our films, but in terms of orientation, the culture of filmmaking, those who fund the films, and their dominance and dictations that directors and writers have to take into account even while conceiving a film, is a big problem. If a screenwriter writes a scene thinking who’ll produce it, they’ll start climbing down the ladders of their creativity to present a ‘more acceptable’ version. So, they stop thinking, imagining and doing things which will be way more meaningful, multi-layered or multi-dimensional. Thus, these films end up adopting a binary narrative rather than a multi-layered one. This difference exists not because of the lack of creativity amongst our filmmakers, but the traditional production culture that we have,” he says.

Even when discussing some of the finest actors he has worked with which include Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Sridevi and Vidya Balan, he harks back to the stark cultural differences that lies when working with actors on the set of a domestic project vis-a-vis an international one.

“When you talk about international actors, there is a particular culture that they bring with them while creating in a particular environment. There is this extreme priority given to human to human connection between the actors. Take the example of Gerard Depardieu, the Amitabh Bachhan of France, who I worked with in Life of Pi. He never cared about who I am, or where I have come from. All he cared about was that I was a human being and an actor. He treated me as his equal. In Star Trek: Discovery, a CBS All Access web series, the lead actor Sonequa Martin-Green treated me like her equal. The first thing she did when we met on set was give me a tight hug. She said ‘I’m so looking forward to working with you, Adil’. That broke all boundaries or hang ups we generally face in India. We face these hang ups in India because there exists a feudal system not just in the film industry but in every household. That feudal attitude is ingrained in us, which reflects in our films and every sphere of life,” he says.

Representing Cinema From The Northeast

Despite his wide appeal, Adil never misses a chance to appear in films based in the Northeast. Following him on social media, it’s hard not to see how passionately he waves the flag for cinema in the Northeast.

From Bhaskar Hazarika’s independent Assamese horror film Kothanodi (2016) to Wanphrang Diengdoh’s debut Khasi film set in Shillong called Lorni – The Flaneur (2019), he has delivered stellar performances.

In Lorni – The Flaneur, Adil plays an unemployed detective in Shillong who gets involved in a case about missing family ornaments. While the film is largely in Khasi, it’s interspersed with English and other languages spoken in this multi-ethnic city. He takes a chance on these essentially low-budget films because of the stories they’re telling written by filmmakers who possess a kind of vision not always seen in mainstream cinema. Moreover, he believes cinema from the Northeast can seriously bridge this cultural gap.

“We know what Bombay (Mumbai) looked like since our childhood through films starring Amitabh Bachhan, Dilip Kumar and Randhir Kapoor. We know about the Sun-n-Sand hotel in Juhu sitting in Goalpara. We know Bombay culture and the way they talk. The more you see a place, its people and culture on screen, the more you familiarise and accept them. When I see the history of Indian film industry, apart from Danny Denzongpa, who was mostly given negative roles because he looked different, when have you seen faces from our part of the world? Cinema is a very powerful medium for people to educate and familiarise them with different cultures. Across the Northeast, we have such talented people,” he says.

“He has definitely brought greater attention to cinema from the Northeast. A person like him can ideally occupy himself with big Bollywood or international projects, but he regularly comes back to do Assamese films as well. Those films automatically become bigger when he stars in them,” says Kenny Basumatary.

What can be done to strengthen cinema in the Northeast?

For Adil, the biggest hurdle remains the lack of knowledge amongst the authorities about what role art plays in human society. Art is a powerful tool and gives people an avenue to express themselves.

“When you can express yourself, you become a lighter person. You don’t hold grudges or seek revenge because you have expressed yourself and that somebody has listened to you, seen your work and recognised you. Expressing yourself through art makes you an emotionally lighter person and more accommodating. The lack of understanding of the role art plays in society amongst the people who hold the reins is criminally bad. We need institutions that can skill aspiring artists. We need a lot of work in educating our filmmakers on how to write a script. I know this because I keep reading scripts from different parts of the world. We need proper film institutes where people from different parts of the world can teach. I don’t see a difference in talent, but just in terms of orientation and guidance. With that sorted, you’ll see many more marvellous films from the Northeast,” he says.

“The way he conducts himself in public is one of the things I have admired. He is a very generous person as well with his time and knowledge. But what I admire the most is the way he interacts and carries himself with such dignity, patience and generosity,” says Kenny.

Education for All

His point about the need for better education harks back to that moment in Pareeksha, where one character, who is the only college graduate in the basti, talks about how he could never make much of himself without the necessary guidance. And for those who haven’t watched the film, Adil wants them to take home the gross inequities of our education system.

“Back in our days, there were only government schools. These schools attracted good and passionate teachers. Not wanting to generalize here, but quite often I have seen that those who become teachers at government schools today haven’t found anything better to do. There are no other jobs available for them. They are also paid very little. On the other hand, the focus on private schools is growing all the time and the elite class don’t worry about the rest because their children are going to the best schools. I believe that school and college education should be made tuition-free for everyone. I am sitting here today in front of you because I got a free education. The current inequities of our education system is depriving our nation of this amazing pool of talent,” he says.

And that answer in some ways captures the beauty of talking to Adil Hussain, who always connects the dots between films and real life.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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The year 2020’s Independence Day (I-Day) celebrations will be unlike any we have seen before.

Traditional I-Day events will have to be restricted with social distancing rules in place. But, that does not mean we cannot celebrate a day of nationalnational pride with the same enthusiasm.

Here, we look at all the unique ways we can make this independence day special by celebrating our nation’s rich culture online.

From movie aficionados to music and history buffs, we have something for everyone.

Immerse yourself in the country’s history

The Ministry of Tourism launched an interesting series of webinars titled ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ in April this year. The series looks at the history of different cities but for Independence Day, they have come up with special themes that focus on the freedom struggle.

Three webinars are already available and for the special occasion, two more would be out soon that would focus on the subject. The ones available in the public domain include “Memoirs of 1857 – A Prelude to Independence”, “Cellular Jail: Letters, Memoirs & Memories” and “Lesser-known stories of India’s struggle for Independence”. To access the series, click here.

Patriotic Film festival

The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has initiated an online screening of films that embody patriotism. The first-ever online film festival is a part of Independence Day celebrations by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It began on 7 August and will continue until 21 August.

The film festival would also showcase movies in different regional languages like Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati and Malayalam in addition to Hindi.

Some of the films in the line-up include Gandhi Se Mahatma Tak by Shyam Benegal, Udayer Pathey by Bimal Roy, Malayalam film Uttarayanam by G Aravindan, Tamil film Veerapandiya Kattabomman by B. R Panthulu, and Roja by Mani Ratnam, among others. The movies are being streamed here for free.

Groove to melodious tunes

Lovers of music, rejoice, as there is a lot in store. Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) will present, ‘The Freedom Concert’ featuring legendary Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. The music icon will give a solo performance and will also present a vocal rendition to Aeyri Sakhi composed by Amir Khusro in the 13th Century. You can stream the performance at 9 p.m. on 15 August either on Facebook or Youtube.

On the other hand, if you are a big fan of the Indie music scene, check out boxout.fm that has organised a 24-hour special show to celebrate India’s 74th Independence Day. The show begins at 12 a.m. on 15 August 2020 and they have promised a number of exclusive live performances, DJ sets, radio shows and podcasts.

Some of the artists in the line up include Ankur Tewari, Azadi Records, Dualist Inquiry among others. You can stream the music online or download the app on your phone.

Dance performances

If you are an ardent fan of Indian classical dance forms, you are in for a treat. The Adrija Dance Academy based in the US will showcase performances by Indians abroad. The classical dance performance will combine movements from classical dance forms like Odissi and Kathak. Music would include the sounds of the tabla. The performance begins at 10.30 pm and you can register for the free event here.

Learn about India’s development history

The/Nudge Foundation is bringing diverse experts and stakeholders from across t

he globe on one platform to discuss India’s development progress since independence and the road ahead from here. The non-stop 24-hour global event has been organised in collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation & The Skoll Foundation.

Some notable speakers include Faye D’Souza, Ronnie Screwvala, Nalini Shekar among other big names. You can register for the event here.

So, what are you waiting for? Plan your celebrations and tell your friends and family about it too.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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To say that Amit Sadh was dealt a poor hand in life would be an understatement. The 41-year-old actor lost his father at the age of 16, ran away from home, worked as a domestic help, a security guard, an apparel salesman and eventually lived on the footpath in Delhi.

It’s this astounding career graph that makes Amit’s journey fascinating. The actor now has films like Kai Po Che, Sultan, Gold, Yaara and Shakuntala Devi, and web series like Breathe: Into the Shadows (Amazon Prime) and Avrodh: The Siege Within (Sony Liv) to his credit.

Speaking to Amit brings out his humility, depth of perception, energy, intelligence and honesty — qualities often hard to find in our celebrities.

When asked about the spate of recent releases and the many plaudits that have come his way as a result, he tells The Better India, “I am happy that a lot of people are enjoying the work I have done. During the lockdown, I received a lot of messages from people saying that watching these shows and films have helped them in some way. Honestly, there can’t be a bigger source of joy than knowing that in some way I have been a small catalyst in helping people smile and spend time with their families.”

“My childhood wasn’t the best, but that’s life. There is a life that we are given, and there is a life we make. I am just blessed and happy about the life that followed. It took serious will to transform myself and ensure a better course for my life. Of course there were a million miracles and thousands of people who helped me along the way as well. If sharing my heartbreaks and failures inspires people, gives people hope, strength and let’s them know that they can get out of the mess they’re in, then there’s nothing quite like it,” he says.

You can watch him talking about his struggles below.

From Anger, Intolerance to Discovering Acting

Amit was barely 20 when he first came to Mumbai to fulfill his aspirations of becoming a popular star. He admits to not knowing anything about the craft of acting. What he did have was the fire within.

Amit found his first break in television. His first major role was in Neena Gupta production’s Kyun Hota Hai Pyarrr (2002/03), following which he appeared in a series of television soaps including Kohinoor (2006). There were also stints as a contestant on reality shows like Bigg Boss, Nach Baliye and Fear Factor.

“There was a lot of anger in me, and I blamed my parents and society for all my troubles. But by the age of 26, I finally realised that I needed to stop blaming the world, leave behind notions of whether what happened to me was right or wrong, and make something of myself. After doing television for a couple of years, a stark realization dawned on me that I was an empty vessel full of noise. I was not happy with the work on television, the environment, the way they worked and behaved, and decided to leave it all behind. I wasn’t doing any real acting there. Yes, I fell into the trap of meeting people in the film business, and was rejected on many occasions. When I seriously started working on myself, then the real journey began,” he says.

Another major motivating factor behind leaving television was the ‘ban’ he suffered at the hands of the television industry. He was blacklisted for being outspoken. By his own admission, Amit was like a ‘bull’, ready to fight against any perceived injustice.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Amit said, “I did not leave television to go to the movies. On television, they banned me. They called each other and said, ‘Isko kaam mat do (Don’t give him work).’ Toh phir maine kaha, ‘Achcha? Nahi de rahe ho? Toh phir main picturon mein jaaunga (Then I said, ‘Oh? You won’t give me work here? Then I will do films)’.”

His focus then shifted to bettering his craft. One thing led to another and he ended up studying acting at the reputed Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York.

“There, I met different people, made friends from different walks of life with their own stories of struggle and learnt a lot from them. There I encountered books, started reading them for the first time in my life, particularly on subjects like neuro linguistic programming, and this played a part in changing my outlook towards life,” he recalls.

When I ask him to elaborate further on the change that came within, he talks about the will that eventually pushed its way through all the negativity.

“There was a very strong will that came inside me to stop cribbing, complaining and stop being angry, intolerant and impatient. Carrying those emotions also made me very unhappy. In New York, I discovered joy in the process of filmmaking and the process of creating characters. Cinema has a very healing and therapeutic effect. My journey is still ongoing, and I’m not perfect. I look to be a better version of myself everyday. That’s who I chase. I also desire to be better as a person, learn to emote better, express better, articulate better, learn to be a better actor and that’s a good struggle, which should remain for life,” he says.

Upon his return, he landed an important role in the film, Kai Po Che! (2013), where he played the character of Omkar Shashtri. Playing this role garnered him a lot of appreciation and paved the way forward. More than anything else, however, he came back as a calmer and more tolerant person who was more confident in his own craft. Ironically, the day he truly decided to become an actor, he left acting in television.

“Kai Po Che is a film which is closest to my heart. It was the turning point for me, Sushant (Singh Rajput), Raj (Rajkummar Rao) and director Abhishek Kapoor. Of course, Abhishek was coming after directing Rock On, but all of us had this angst, hunger and burning desire to prove ourselves. Angst is not negative if you use it correctly. It was a truly special film. Even today, the film gets so much love. The only sad part is that we don’t have Kai (Sushant) any more even though he’s there with us in spirit. It’s a mixed bag of emotions for me looking back. We were very pure in the process of making the film. When you are pure, you love each other, listen to each other, act for each other, respect each other, and I think this is the kind of environment artists should create,” says Amit.

During the making of Kai Po Che, he recalls being treated very well by the studio, producer and director. “There was so much positivity. When it was all over, I began chasing that feeling. I thought to myself when will I get to play another character like this or when will I get to work with such people, and that’s also the reason why for a while I didn’t get projects for a while. Having said that, I couldn’t have asked for a better start than Kai Po Che,” he adds.

Craft & Making it in Mumbai

When people come to Mumbai to fulfill their dreams as an actor, Amit believes it’s very important to understand what they’re coming for. “Are you coming here to make money? Are you coming here to become a star? Are you coming here for material prosperity? Are you coming here to become an artist? I am not anyone to judge, but you must be very specific about your goals. For me, it was very simple. I wanted to be an actor,” he says.

After leaving television, he set his goals. He wanted to grow as a human being, bring peace in his life and become an artist. All he wanted was to become a good and effective actor.

“I was lucky to start with Kai Po Che, where the team was so professional. Prior to that, I learnt the process of acting, the language, how to behave as an actor, method acting and how to prepare for a role from Lee Strasberg. After Kai Po Che, there were many who said a lot of things to me. They would tell me how I was left behind compared to Sushant and Raj. They would say there is no ‘perception’ of you. However, I took that as a positive. As an actor and artist, it’s a blessing not to have a ‘perception’ of you. This means the audience is ready to watch you perform in different roles,” he says.

It is precisely this quality that makes Amit such a well-rounded actor. And going by the names he calls out as icons like Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Aamir Khan and Manoj Bajpayee, amongst others, it’s no surprise that we have seen him play a variety of roles ranging from a special forces officer (Avrodh), police officer (Breathe), journalist (Super 30) and middle class husband (Shakuntala Devi) with conviction.

However, there is one actor from whom Amit takes his cue from — Russel Crowe. The man has played a Roman gladiator (The Gladiator), an eccentric mathematician (A Beautiful Mind) and a corrupt CIA agent (Body of Lies), and it was an interview that Crowe gave while he was promoting the film Cinderella Man (2005), which influences Amit’s approach to acting.

“In that interview, Crowe said that when he first gets a character to play, he observes and goes after its physicality. Once you get the physicality right, your insides start reacting in a different way. When I get a role, the first thing I do is think about the physicality of the part. How much weight will this character have? That will determine his demeanour, how he will walk, whether his shoulders should tilt, and once you get this right, you breathe differently, and then you become either a Kabir Sawant in Breathe or a Major Videep Singh in Avrodh. The first thing I do when I get a part is how will this character walk, weigh and talk,” he says.

“I am an actor who is dependent on his co-actors, set environment and my directors. Having said that I have been very lucky to have worked with many people who aren’t this way. I am dependent on other actors, and if I do well, the credit goes to everybody around me,” he says. Little wonder that he credits everyone in his team on social media when a movie or a web series releases. For him, making a film or web series is a collective effort, and thus makes no bones about the fact that everyone involved deserves credit.

“Amit has a lot of energy both on screen and off screen. We were doing a scene during the shooting of Yaara, where my character is attacking him and he apologises. His performance was so powerful that for a split second I got a little distracted. I ended up thinking here is an actor who puts in a lot of energy into his scenes. For that split second, I broke out of acting and went into admiring his performance while we were shooting. We didn’t have to cut and do a retake or anything. See, there has to be a give and take with your co-actors. Amit never misses any of his lines or marks. He is a thorough professional. There were no mistakes and he did his job very efficiently and as a result he definitely upped my game,” notes fellow actor Kenny Basumatary, who acted alongside Amit in Yaara.

We then talk about how to maintain focus as an actor with all the media scrutiny, pitfalls of celebrity life and distractions that come along the way.

“I keep my life very simple and free from distractions. When I started out, there were the usual distractions, pitfalls, loss of discipline and along the way I picked up some bad habits. But I got out of it soon and realised if I wanted to progress, my roots, qualities and principles which brought me here would take me forward. Soon, I found my groove, found my strength and now none of it bothers me. Now, I want to be a source of strength for others. There are a lot of people who get affected by the lifestyle, media scrutiny and superficiality of celebrity life. I am a gladiator who has learnt how to fight for my freedom, and I want to let people know that they can be their own gladiators,” he concludes.

Featured Image Courtesy:  Facebook/Breathe: Into The Shadows

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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S. Hareesh is the assistant village officer at Neendoor, a hamlet tucked away in the hills of central Kerala. He’s also the mind behind India’s latest entry to the Oscars, Jallikattu. The film is based on Hareesh’s Malayalam short story Maoist, which he adapted for the screen along with friend and writer R Jayakumar. He also recently won the JCB literary award for Moustache, the English translation of his novel Meesha.

Jallikattu refers to the traditional event of running bulls. But the film is not about the sport itself. It is about the chaos that ensues when a water buffalo escapes a butcher’s hands and the whole village tries to catch it. This main thread interwoven with snippets of the villagers’ lives reveals man’s own bestial side.

The film is set in a village very much like Hareesh’s own. There would often be news about a buffalo that had run amok, with local officials urging people to stay indoors. Hareesh built on these regular happenings to create a dramatic story.

The film was picked as India’s entry to the 93rd Academy Awards by a 14-member committee of the Film Federation of India from a shortlist of 26 films. It is the third Malayalam film after Guru (1997) and Adaminte Makan Abu (2011) to represent India at the Oscar’s.

“Of course I am elated that the film has been chosen as India’s Oscar entry!” Hareesh tells The Better India. “I know it’s going to be an impossibly tough race, but there is still the desire to win.”

Turning Words Into Moving Visuals

Hareesh never imagined that any of his fiction would be turned into a film. In 2018, three stories from his anthology, Aadam, were combined into a film called Aedan by director Sanju Surendran.

Soon after, Lijo Jose Pellissery of Ee.Ma.Yau and Angamaly Diaries fame phoned him about making a film based on another piece in the same anthology.

They became friends, developing their vision and screenplay for the movie over months. They roped in Jayakumar and the trio would meet every week to work on the script.

“We had a lot of fun writing it,” Hareesh says, enthusiastically.

The most challenging aspect of converting his short story into a screenplay was ridding it of all backstories, exposition, and thoughts. Everything that happens has to be shown visually.

Despite writing the screenplay, the author was really surprised by the end product. It’s not at all the film he had pictured in his head.

“And that’s the magic of creating something like a film. At every stage, each person adds their own transformational touch to the project,” Hareesh says.

And his favourite moment in the film (spoiler alert!) is when the beast is being lifted out of a well by a huge crowd. As it comes out, its eyes meet those of an old man who is watching the concerted yet chaotic effort from a distance.

He did not elaborate on its significance as the author prefers to leave “interpretations open to the audience.”

How Jallikattu Diverges From The Short Story

Like most literary film adaptations, Jallikattu has significant differences from Maoist. And for good reason, says Hareesh.

“Just like I used an ordinary occurrence as inspiration for my story, the director is free to use my story as fodder for his film. Ultimately, a film is the director’s work and vision,” explains the writer.

In Hareesh’s short story, two animals (a buffalo and a bull) escape from the butcher. But because buffaloes and bulls are so hard to tell apart on the screen, they decided to use just one buffalo in the film.

There are also thematic differences. While the tone of Maoist is extremely satirical, Jallikattu is less so, focusing more on mob behaviour. The initial part of the short story speaks of how the buffalo reached the village all the way from Andhra Pradesh, but the movie starts off on the day of its planned slaughter.

A Message For Aspiring Writers

“Writing is like a personal quest, so I cannot really offer any guidance or words of advice,” Hareesh says, adding, “But I will say this much: Write honestly.”

He admits to not writing much when he was in school or college, but he says he used to read a lot. He studied Malayalam literature and took up a government job. Only then, at the age of 22, did he pen his first short and send it off to a magazine. He kept working as an assistant village officer and published when he could. But thanks to his recent literary success, he is on leave from his government job and writes full-time these days.

Between short stories, novels, and screenplays, the novel is his favourite form. However, among his own works, the one he likes the most is a short story called Appan. His latest undertaking is a film titled Churuli, a Malayalam science fiction film, also directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery.

Seems like they make a winning team! We, at The Better India, wish them the very best for their Oscar run.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

At a time when the youth of Mumbai’s Govandi slum were either doing odd jobs for money or were struggling to cope, Afzal Razvi was striving for something that people around him hardly dared to dream of – becoming a scriptwriter for Bollywood. Afzal, who is now 32-year-old and married, is the author of a novel and a writer for television shows. He’s doing all this from a one bedroom-kitchen house built by his father.

Afzal was studying in the seventh grade in an English-medium school in his neighbourhood when his first story, titled ‘Curfew’, was published in a Hindi newspaper. His story was so interesting that he was paid Rs 250 for it. He was about 10 years old at the time. “I did not expect the story to fetch me money. I was only interested in writing, and found out how to send articles to newspapers and magazines. So I sent my piece to a Hindi newspaper,” he says.

On how his interest in writing came to be, Afzal says, “My father would write stories in Urdu whenever he found time. Writing stories is in my blood.” Afzal’s father died ten years ago.

He then began writing more poems and stories in Hindi and tried to send them to as many publications as possible. “I was not consistent enough, as I was a child and wanted to play outside, watch movies, and prank people,” he explains.

Govandi CID

After he finished 12th grade in 2000, Afzal began working at a call centre. This was not to support his family financially, but because he wanted to do something they were initially against. “As I was so interested in writing, especially crime stories, I couldn’t focus on my studies much. I wanted to become a writer for movies. To hone my story writing and scriptwriting skills, I decided to enroll in Zee Institute of Media Arts (ZIMA), which has courses on how to write for films, direct, and act. The fees was Rs 25,000. I took the call centre job to accumulate money for the course,” he says.

Afzal’s father was not willing to pay the fees for the course, as he believed the profession was not good for his child. Eventually, his parents acknowledged his interest. “Parents are always concerned about you, which is why they stop you if they think something isn’t good for you. But when they see your determination, they help. This happened to me too, and my father eventually gave me the fees for the course,” he says.

While doing the course, Afzal started making a YouTube series called Govandi CID, based on the existing popular series CID. He wrote stories and then picked young people from the slum to act in the episodes. He says he wanted to show the slums’ reality through the show. “Through Govandi CID, I wanted to show people that crimes took place in the area, and the youth were falling prey to drugs. I was also practising what I was learning from the course,” he says.

A gradual climb up the ladder

After his course, Afzal busied himself in finding work. However, he struggled due to lack of money and connections within the film industry. “I was trying to make connections, but they weren’t consistent. To meet directors and writers in Bollywood, you have to have money and wear dashing clothes. My family did not have the money to afford that. I tried as much as I could, and managed to get work that would cover my expenses,” Afzal says.

He adds, “I became a ghostwriter and also wrote for free for some time. Ghostwriting work would give me money, and writing for free gave me some credit for my contribution to story and scriptwriting. I worked for Kasautii Zindagi Kay, Crime Patrol, Shhhhh…Koi Hai, and a few other TV serials as a ghostwriter, assistant writer, or for free.”

After struggling for two to three years and living hand-to-mouth, Afzal began receiving projects to write for DD’s Urdu serials, Abaya and Akhlaq Gumshuda Hai. “While I was struggling to make a name in the industry, I met many who used my skills but didn’t let me climb even a single ladder in the industry. Because of a few good people, I was part of Kabuli Pathan as a dialogue writer,” he says. Kabuli Pathan was directed by Hridesh Kamble and released in 2016.

A writer’s journey

In an effort to narrate his struggles, Afzal wrote Falak Talak at the end of 2019. “The book is a crime thriller, but also narrates the journey of a writer. It talks about the struggles and reality of the film industry. Although the book is fiction, a lot of things said in it are real,” he says. The book is self-published through Notion Press.

So far, the book has sold 1,500 copies, and Afzal has earned around Rs 40,000. An English version of the book came out in November this year. “This book has helped me fetch more writing projects. Now, I am an exclusive writer for a 3 Wings Production web series, which pays me more than Rs 30,000 a month. Moreover, I am also writing a web series for Cinemobs Original among other projects, which gives me about Rs 50,000 a month. All this started once the lockdown was lifted in Mumbai,” Afzal says.

Hoping for a brighter tomorrow

On why he doesn’t shift to a better place, now that he has the means to support a better lifestyle, he says, “I’m not ashamed of living in a slum. We can make small changes to change the area one by one. Now, many of my neighbours, especially the youth, are inspired by me and seek my help to become writers. They want to do better in life, and I try my best to help them. This is how we can change society.”

Afzal says he is happy with the decisions he made in life. “Now I work from my home, and whenever i feel like it. I don’t have a boss to dictate my actions. I’m happy with my life,” he says.

(Edited by Divya Sethu) 

Amidst the backdrop of World War II, two individuals are putting their lives at stake to support the Indian National Army (INA) by transporting a gem-encrusted sword to its members, to be used as capital to fund the revolution. A hanging bridge stands in their way, as the British try to corner them and stop them from crossing over and leaving Indian borders. What ensues after is a climactic scene on the flimsy bridge, followed by shootings and explosions causing some of the characters to lose their lives.

This is a scene from a 2017 Bollywood film, Rangoon, where the lead characters, played by Saif Ali Khan, Kangana Ranaut and Shahid Kapoor, wrestle with all odds to transport a priceless sword to the other side of the bridge.

Now, imagine watching this scene with no sound. You would not hear the characters’ footsteps, the explosions, the sounds of a torrential stream running below, or even the subtle yet dangerous reminder of their ultimate doom with each crack on the bridge. It would then be quite bland, wouldn’t it?

Without background undertones like these, any scene, be it a climatic one or otherwise, would lose its flavour. That’s why Mumbai-resident Karan Arjun Singh has dedicated his life to adding magic to the screen. The 48-year-old foley artist has recreated the minute sound-effects in the aforementioned scene, in a small foley studio, using not much but a charpai with a mini hanging bridge artificially constructed using jute and twigs.

Talking to The Better India, he points out that we don’t just watch a film with our eyes, but witness a seamless and immersive aural experience without even realising it. Foley is a highly underappreciated art in cinema. Artists like him recreate sound effects and add them in post-production to enhance the film without overpowering it. He is one of the country’s most prominent foley artists, having added his magic to more than 3,000 films so far.

‘Finding my true calling’

Born and brought up in the staff quarters of Mumbai’s BR Films studio, cinema has always been an integral part of Karan’s life.

Talking about his first encounter with his calling, he says, “My father was part of the security team at BR Films, but I was always interested in the process of filmmaking. Through the years, I had the opportunity to work in various capacities at the studio. From cleaning to recording, I’d done it all. But it was only when I was around 11 years old that I found my true calling. It was quite late at night and I sneaked out to watch the process of voice recording. I reached a small studio room, where someone was using all sorts of objects, from brooms to shoes, balls and leaves, to replicate the sounds shown on the video playing on a large screen. I was spellbound watching him work and at that moment I knew that this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

After this incident, Karan began to frequent the studio at night to learn more about foley from the artists there. A year later, in 1984, he did his first work on a film called Teri Maherbaniya, at the age of 12. Since then, he has worked on thousands of films with several prominent blockbusters to his name, including Tezaab, Jab We Met, Sultan, Dangal, Tiger Zinda Hai, Neerja, Secret Superstar, Tumhari Sulu, Krrish 3 and even Baahubali.

In 2003, Karan parted ways with BR Films and decided to establish himself as an independent foley artist. After freelancing for six years, he launched Just Foley in 2009 in Goregaon. His career has scaled since, helping him diversify into working on web series such as Paatal Lok, in addition to films.

An underappreciated art

But life as a foley artist is quite difficult, he says. “Long hours are a given. We spend nights without sleeping and work till 4 am in the morning every day to finish films. A few decades ago, when sound was recorded on mono tracks, we would manage to finish an entire film in a night, but now with Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround sound, things have changed and become more complicated. So it can take somewhere between 15 to 20 days and sometimes even a month to finish one film.”

He adds that action films are usually the most challenging and time-consuming, as an average action film has more than 5 lakh sound effects to be individually recreated and added to the video clips. “Krrish 3, being the first superhero film in India, was quite a challenge. Creating sound effects for the explosions, building crumbling down, amidst the main character scaling heights, was quite something. We have to spend hours adding layers and layers of sounds to get the authentic effect,” says the artist, who manages to complete even the largest project inside his 10ft x 16ft sound studio with a trusted team. From the sound of a marching battalion to the delicate footsteps of Kareena Kapoor, he and his team of foley artists can do it all.

One of his youngest team members, 36-year-old Ram Nath, says, “I have been working with Karan sir as a sound recording engineer since 2005 and have done several huge films such as Baahubali. But even after so many years, the magic of sound never seems to surprise me. At a glance, it looks like an ocean of chaos, but there is a method to this madness, that artists like Karan sir understand and excel at.”

But despite the brilliance of this art and the artists, foley continues to be underappreciated in the film industry. Karan opines that one way of helping foley achieve its due as an art is its prominence in film institutions. Although several institutes in India focus on Sound Design and Engineering, very little emphasis is given to foley, a gap that Karan hopes to be able to fill someday by starting his own institution for teaching foley.

Watch this video of Karan recreating the sound of a blood pressure machine using nothing but an empty Suthol bottle and a laptop bag with a velcro strap.

 

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A post shared by Karan Arjun Singh (@karanfoley)

Edited by Divya Sethu

For the last 17 years, Hemant Chaturvedi always began the new year with a travel ritual. A Mumbai-based photographer and cinematographer, he travels all the way to Prayagraj (earlier known as Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, to witness the Kumbh Mela, a prominent Hindu festival and pilgrimage. The juxtaposition of scores of people immersed in celebration of their faith with the unexpected sense of tranquility is what always drew him to witness the festivities.

However, 2019 turned out to be different.

“It had moved away from the beautiful simplicity of the celebration by becoming a huge spectacle. That bored me and so I decided to leave and explore Allahabad University instead,” says Hemant.

On his way to this 19th century architectural landmark, Hemant recalled the existence of another marvel — an old single-screen cinema theatre called Lakshmi Talkies. Having closed since 1999, the erstwhile popular theatre was now languishing in neglect and was about to be demolished to be replaced by a mall.

Even in the midst of ruins, the Art Deco heritage structure had not yet lost its charm, all it needed was its due appreciation through the eyes of an artist, and Hemant decided to be that person by making it his life’s mission to immortalise these neglected heritage structures through his camera.

“I remember walking inside, brimming with fascination. I’d spotted a pile of small film posters called lobby cards dating back to the 1960s and there was a dust-covered idol of Goddess Lakshmi in the lobby with a few broken arms. Upon entering the theatre auditorium I was taken aback by the large murals depicting Ramayana painted on the walls adjacent to the screen. It was breathtaking and something that modern multiplexes can never replicate. It was at that moment that I decided to make this into a project. I decided to photograph a few more single-screen cinemas across the city in the remaining days,” says the 53-year-old.

With the advent of multiplexes with high-tech facilities and financial challenges, these family-run single-screens are quickly becoming a thing of the past. “When I began to research this topic. I found a jarring reality that between 2000 to 2019, almost 12,000 single-screen cinemas were shut or demolished,” he shares.

Each demolition not only crumbled the physical structure of the theatres but threatened to wipe out the illustrious history of Indian cinema.

“I realised that if I let this continue and just be a bystander, I would let valuable heritage get lost. Each single-screen cinema is unique and an example of individuality, unlike multiplexes that look almost identical. So through my project I decided to make memorabilia of sorts that would chronicle the existence of these marvels and serve as a platform of visual conversation for generations to come,” explains the esteemed photographer who started the Single Screen Cinemas Project in 2019.

Since then, Hemant has spent over 20 lakhs traveling more than 32,000 kilometers in his jeep across 500 towns in 11 states, to document the beauty and history of more than 650 endangered cinema theatres.

“It began with my fascination and appreciation for the intricate architecture and design but slowly became about the people behind it as well. Over time, I began to understand how multiplexes, despite being technologically advanced, lacked the character and romance of single-screen cinema,” says Hemant, who has worked on several prominent films like Makdee (2002) and Maqbool (2004), among others.

Although the COVID-19 restrictions had halted his plans, he adds that with the pandemic the fate of such cinema theatres is precariously hanging by a thread. Working towards publishing the photographs in the first volume of his book, his project is nowhere close to an end and will not be until he has documented the last remaining single-screen marvel through his lens.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

In 2018, India’s social climate experienced a transformation like no other. A clarion call for sexual violence survivors, the #MeToo movement allowed thousands of people to share their accounts of trauma that were once silenced or shared only with a few in confidence.

What was once simmering behind closed doors had now erupted into a worldwide movement that came into prominence in India after a Bollywood actress leveled allegations against a co-star. A single woman’s story became a phenomenon threatening to bring down powerful individuals across the country.

But what after that?

Mumbai-based Aastha Khanna points out the fault in the system that never let the movement meet its true potential.

“In India, the #MeToo movement was as big as any other place. It rocked the entire nation, and yet three years later, we are not very different from what we used to be. With time, the conversations around it died down and the media moved on to the next big thing. Unlike the West, which worked toward finding a solution, at least in the film space, we did not do much. The job of an Intimacy Coordinator (IC), for instance, came into existence in the wake of this movement as people there realised that performers were being put in vulnerable positions. But in India, things did not play out the way it should have,” says Aastha who has been working as an IC in films and web series for the past nine months. Before her, India did not have any certified IC working towards making the visual medium safe for performers.

Speaking to The Better India she highlights different facets of her job role and the urgent need for us as a society to undergo a transformation.

‘It’s Not Just About The Sex’

During early 2020, Aastha was working as an assistant director (AD) in filmmaker Shakun Batra’s upcoming movie, when on the director’s insistence she happened to discover the role of an IC. After searching relentlessly to hire an IC in India, she realised that the role was nonexistent in the country and thus began her journey to fill a gaping void in the film and television industry.

“We were about to shoot a few scenes of intimacy and so the director asked me to do the requisite research. I tried looking for people to hire who could be experts in this but found none in this field. Then, the director sent me an article on Amanda Blumenthal who had worked on the drama Euphoria. That is when I reached out to her and began to get her help to design exercises and intimacy workshops. Under her guidance, we ended up making a team of three people — me as an IC, an intimacy coach and a director of intimacy, for the film,” she shares.

Her association with Amanda for this project opened up a new world for Aastha, who realised that by training to be an IC she could marry her profession with her passion to work for issues pertaining to gender-based violence, safety, etc. “After COVID-19 began, Amanda informed me about a course she was starting under Intimacy Professionals Association (IPA) that I could apply for. I applied, got in and spent around 20 weeks during the pandemic training to be an IC,” she adds.

“To understand what an intimacy coordinator does, we first need to dive into the definition of intimacy. Thinking of it as just a sexual act is very reductive, because a larger spectrum of intimacy also involves minors and small children. In case of minors, the scenes can range from exploration of their sexuality, first kisses to simple and basic familial relations shared on screen. People don’t realise that scenes with childbirth, non-sexual on-screen hugs and kisses with kids or minors are also considered intimate. In these scenes, the child artists and minors are performing not with their parents but actors playing the role of their parents or guardians, hence the job to ensure their safety, consent and comfort becomes of the utmost importance,” explains Aastha.

Aastha who has previously worked as an assistant director in prominent films, like Student of The Year 2 (2019), Andhadhun (2018) and Badlapur (2015), has now been involved in more than seven projects as an IC. These include upcoming web series and films with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Dharma Productions.

She adds that a change in behaviour is required to reflect beyond the screen. “As a culture, Indians are very physical in their interactions. From pulling the cheek of a stranger’s kid without consent to assuming that one needs to be 18 years of age to have agency of their physical being, the smallest of actions play into creating the larger fabric of social relations and we need to acknowledge it. Normalising and trivialising abuse is not the solution,” she says.

An intimacy coordinator also performs the task of a mental health first-aider on set, especially during scenes when minors are exposed to situations of sexual violence and trauma.

To explain this to most people on set, she follows a simple logic — “If you don’t want your child to experience the trauma played on-screen, make sure there is an IC on set when you are shooting such a scene with somebody else’s child.”

‘Are You The Sex Police?’

Being the first IC in a country that continues to grapple with issues around intimacy, sexual or otherwise, is mired with challenges. Hence, the path for Aastha as the first certified IC in India was extremely exciting but also full of roadblocks.

“With the glory of being the first at anything comes its own set of challenges. For me, it was to prove my legitimacy and worth every single day. When you are going against the wave, people will question you at every step. I have been asked whether I am required on set, whether I bring anything special to the table, the budget implications or if I am even qualified enough and all sorts of things. People have even asked if I’m a very sexually active person, what my parents think about my job or on the other end, if I am a prude or a sex police. The questions range from funny, ignorant to borderline offensive, but that’s fine as long as the work helps people,” says Aastha.

She adds that the idea that an IC might be a ‘sex police’ is a misnomer because it is their job to make the production safe while ensuring that the intimate scenes are steamy, realistic and organic, all while each performer feels comfortable and secure. “An IC helps ensure clear conversations between a creative team and the performers, by empowering the latter to know and ask for what they need from a safety and mental comfort perspective. The most important part of my job is to uphold performer consent at all times,” she adds.

While Aastha might be the first certified IC in the country, she adds that there might have been many before her performing facets of the role in isolation. But she is quick to add that a professional approach covers much more ground ensuring that both the performers and the creators are satisfied throughout the production process. A lone ranger for now, she with IPA’s support is striving to create a community of intimacy professionals in India, encouraging a new generation of progressive content creators.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

“Ae waqt aaj tu tham ja…” is how I felt when I saw my idol dressed in white trousers, a shirt and sandals, walking down the stairs of his palatial Pali Hill bungalow in Bandra, Mumbai. He walked towards where we were sitting in the front room, where I was interviewing his wife Saira Banu.

When in her sing-song voice Saira Banu announced, “Saheb aa gaye”, I just about controlled myself from jumping up from the sofa chair.
In that moment, I imagined myself as Madhubala in the scene from the film Tarana (1951) where Dilip Kumar emerges from a side room and bumps into her, and on realising that she is head over heels in love with him, gently pats her on the head with that mesmerising soft smile!

I could not control my adulation, as he smiled gently with stretched hands to greet me and came to sit next to me on the sofa. Imagine sitting next to the legendary Dilip Kumar (Mohammad Yusuf Khan).

 

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A post shared by Karisma Kapoor (@therealkarismakapoor)

Throughout his life, thousands of women must have had the same bemused expression that I had at that moment way back in the mid-1990s. It was difficult to gather my wits to speak to him as a journalist and more difficult to take down his comments as Dilip Kumar’s impeccable English would have given a tough competition to MP Shashi Tharoor’s English vocabulary. Moreover, his mastery over the language could be gauged by his selection of words to make his point. They were not difficult words nor unheard of but apt words to express what he wanted to say. His correct pronunciation and the correct way to stress on the syllables, showed that the reason this legend was a master of dialogue deliveries.

It was this penchant for getting the exact nuances of each word that have made his dialogues famous even for today’s youth, who may not be as familiar with the work of this thespian. Today’s youth may have heard Shah Rukh Khan deliver the famous dialogue in the film Devdas (2002), “Kaun kambhakt hai jo bardaasht karane ke liye peeta hai…”. But they may have missed the same dialogue delivered by the first superstar of Hindi films, Dilip Saheb in Devdas (1955).

I fell in love with his dialogue delivery while watching the film Leader (1964) on DVD. In a court scene to counter his defence against Vyjayanthimala, the lead actor opposite him, Dilip Kumar says, “Is mehengayi mein sar phodne ke liye sangmarmar ke tukada nahin milata, mein inhe Taj Mahal kaise bana ke doon?” Of course, the credit has to go to the writer but one can’t deny his perfect delivery of the dialogues.

And what can be said about his way of acting, which has become the style book for many Indian actors. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan and others were believed to have emulated the legend. I remember the scene in the film Mashaal (1984) when his on-screen wife, Waheeda Rehman, is almost dying on the streets of Mumbai and Dilip Kumar is trying to get a lift from the vehicles passing by to help him take his wife to the hospital. The desperation and the beseeching ways he pleads with the passers-by is an emotional performance to say the least.

The same agony one felt watching while he took the dying Vyjanthimala, his on-screen wife in the film Ganga Jamuna (1961), in his arms saying, “Nahin Dhanno nahi, aaj agar tumhe kuch ho jaye to main is duniya ko aag laga dunga.” A dramatic dialogue but it was the pathos and anguish on his face while holding her that made the audience completely empathise with his character, even though he played the role of a dacoit.

The powerhouse of acting was bestowed with innumerable awards — Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke award, 8 Filmfare awards for best acting, Lifetime achievement award and many others.

Dilip Kumar came to be known as ‘Tragedy King’ as most of his earlier films like Mela (1948), Andaz (1949), Devdas (1955) and many others portrayed tragic stories. He started acting in pre- independence era in 1944 with the film Jwar Bhata (1944), and acted until 1988. However, he shifted to comic roles quite seamlessly in films like Paigham (1959), Kohinoor (1960), Leader (1964), Ram aur Shyam (1967) and innumerable others. We still laugh when we remember his scenes teasing Meena Kumari in Kohinoor and Azaad (1955), and Vyjanthimala in films like Leader, Naya Daur (1957) or heckling the newbie Mumtaz in Ram aur Shyam. His depicted a gentle humour — no garishness or loudness in his comic roles. His subtle dialogues, that soft, amused smile and the mirth in his eyes were enough to portray the comic scene.

Even when I had called him up to talk about Durga Khote, with whom he had acted in a few films, including Mughal-E-Azam (1960), after her demise,  he softly said, “People called her ‘Dimps!’ She had lovely dimples.”

Dilip Saheb always spoke softly and was famous for his pauses.

The best part of this conversation was that when after a week he had met my then-editor R K Karanjia, Blitz, he recalled talking to me by name. My happiness knew no bounds.

But the legend and the style book for Indian film actors is no more. I am at a loss for words to express my grief, but on hearing the demise of Dilip Kumar, Vishal Dadlani, the music composer and singer, put it so aptly — “Lafzon ki haisiyat kahan, jo aapko bayan kare (Mere words can’t describe you).”

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

Despite the legal age for marriage in India being 18 and 20 for women and men respectively, child marriage continues to remain a prevalent social evil across the country. This archaic practice that hasn’t found eradication even 70 years after Independence.

Though commonly believed to be a predominantly rural custom, it should dishearten us all to know those underage marriages have been clandestinely practised in even urban sections of the country.

A large upsurge of the practice has been observed between 2001 and 2011. According to a 2011 study conducted by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and Young Lives India, 70 districts – spread across 13 states—reported a “high incidence” of underage marriages, accounting for 21% of India’s child marriages.

These states include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Furthermore, during the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of 2015-2016, the surveyors were startled to find that almost 26.8 per cent of women falling under 20-24 age-group were already married before turning 18 and that nearly 8 per cent of girls between 15-19 were already mothers or pregnant.

Today, few things can be considered as a more significant infringement of human rights than a child being pushed into wedlock even before he or she can grasp what that means.

Losing formative years of emotional and mental growth, what happens to these children, as an effect of underage marriage, is an overburdening of responsibilities that are too heavy for them to shoulder.

As is the case time and again in our patriarchal system, girls are affected more adversely. Forced to bid goodbye to childhood, education and ambitions, what awaits them is a seemingly bleak future of household duties and family life.

Protsahan India Foundation is an action and advocacy based non-profit organisation that has been fighting against child abuse in the underserved communities of India with a focus on adolescent girls since early 2010.

Specifically reaching out to girls from underprivileged sections of society, the organisation tries to break barriers of neglect, superstition, archaic views and abuse while providing them with tools to break free of an endless cycle of poverty, abuse and neglect through dedicated programmes and workshops.

Project Lightbulb was one such initiative under which experts and volunteers from diverse professions and backgrounds were roped in to ignite the spark of lateral thinking among the girls while giving them vocational and entrepreneurial life skills.

The programme included workshops on photography, baking, performing arts, filmmaking, jewellery and clothes designing, and computers.

The flagship achievement of the project has been, Fireflies, a film written, produced, directed, edited, and acted by the girls—which brings attention to the issue of child marriage.

Apart from being entirely crowdfunded, these children were assisted by filmmakers and media professionals in close quarters, who encouraged and taught them the intricacies of the process of filmmaking and how it could be harnessed to propagate a socially relevant message.

The plot of Fireflies is set in a village that has been actively practising child marriages. However, the twist in narrative takes off when girls stand up to the tyrannical village chief under whose coercion the villagers agree to marry their daughters before they attain the legal marriageable age of 18.

What follows is a series of seemingly insurmountable challenges and obstacles that the girls must undertake not just to teach the chief a lesson but also pave the way for other girls and their parents to courageously rise above old traditions and customs.

You can watch the film here.

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Superstar Rajinikanth, who is fondly known as Thalaiva, is arguably the most well-known actor in India. Calling him popular is definitely an understatement.

Rajinikanth’s movies are famous for breaking box-office records, and his fans flood cinema theatres and care not for the availability of seats, as long as they get to watch the first day first show of the movie. They have been going the extra mile on his birthday and invent unique styles to celebrate it.

People bathe Rajinikanth’s massive statues in milk and put garlands over them, making Rajinikanth no less than God for his followers. And despite having such fan-following, the man is as down to earth as he can be.

But wait, the Thalaiva is not a superstar only in India. He has a fanbase in Japan too, where people love his action-packed movies and smooth dance moves.

Here is a video about his stardom and fan-base in Japan.

Featured image inset source: Flickr.

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2017 has been a great year for Bollywood fans. We saw some breathtaking performances in movies like ‘Mom’, ‘Newton’ and ‘Trapped’. It was also a year where the audience appreciated documentaries like ‘Sachin – A billion dreams’ and ‘An Insignificant Man’.

1. Tumhari Sulu

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2. Toilet – Ek Prem Katha

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3. Shubh Mangal Savdhan

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4. Ajab Singh Ki Gajab Kahani

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5. Poorna – Courage has no limit

 

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6. Mukti Bhawan (Hotel Salvation)

 

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7. Kadwi Hawa

 

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8. Saanjh

 

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9. Panchlait

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11. Anaarkali of Arrah

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For every wide-eyed movie-goer who is glued to a seat, munching on popcorn, there are those who do not like the food being served in movie halls. While some cannot eat it due to medical reasons, there are many who do not want to pay the often triple-digit popcorn price.

This is what probably what Mumbai resident Jainendra Baxi had in mind, when he, through his lawyer Mr Aditya Pratap, filed a PIL challenging the prohibition on carrying outside food in movie theatres and multiplexes.

The PIL claimed there was no legal or statutory provision prohibiting one from carrying personal food articles or beverages into movie theatres.

In response, the Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra Government to reply to Baxi’s PIL, within three weeks, and the logic behind prohibiting outside food in movie-halls, and whether it is lawful or not.

“They cannot frisk people and take away all the food items,” said a division bench comprising of Justice RM Borde and Justice Rajesh Ketkar. “There you are not entering a sensitive area like an airport to pose a security threat,” the judges said, questioning the need to frisk patrons entering cinema halls, according to India Today.

The bench pointed out that movie-goers should be frisked for dangerous items like guns and knives, and not have their personal food items snatched from them.

Baxi’s lawyer, Advocate Pratap, pertinently pointed out that Maharashtra Cinemas (Regulation) Rules prohibit hawking and selling food inside theatres and auditoriums, yet halls openly flout this rule. In fact, they now have buttons on their seats, allowing people to summon waiters and place orders.

The restrictions on bringing outside food to theatres mainly affect senior citizens and those who cannot eat, for medical reasons, “the junk food sold at the food stalls inside theatres,” the petition read, according to India Today.

You may also like: Here’s How We Can Make Cinema an Accessible Experience for the Visually Impaired

Advocate Pratap suggested that licences issued by the state to such theatres must have a mandatory clause directing them not to ban any outside food or water.

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‘Maa’ isn’t your average film. It tests the relationship between a mother and her daughter when they are faced with a problem no one saw coming—teenage pregnancy.

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Irrespective of what anyone might say, on February 14 every year, many across the world celebrate the power of love and romance on Valentine’s Day. This cultural import has made its presence felt in a country where difficult social barriers often come in the way of love.

It is more than coincidence that on this day, we also celebrate the birthday of Madhubala, an icon of Indian cinema who mesmerised audiences with not only her exquisite beauty but also her ability to render some of our deepest emotions on screen.

If one were to choose an icon of Indian cinema, who symbolises the unparalleled power of love on screen, there are very few actors anyone would choose over Madhubala.

Born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi in 1933, Madhubala began her acting career at the tender age of 9 to provide financial support to her family. With the active assistance of her father, Attaullah Khan, who would remain an overarching, if not controversial figure during Madhubala’s short life, she reached superstardom.

It was Devika Rani, an actress from yesteryear, who saw unbridled potential in the young actress and advised her to assume the screen name of Madhubala. She bagged her first lead role opposite the iconic Raj Kapoor in the 1947 film Neel Kamal, which was the last time she was listed as Mumtaz.

In a life spanning just 36 years, she did a range of memorable films including Mahal (1949), Amar (1954), Mr and Mrs ’55 (1955), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Howrah Bridge (1958) Mughal-E-Azam (1960) and Barsaat Ki Raat (1960).

Remember that this was post-Independence India, where times were difficult both economically and socially and in that climate, her movies did leave behind an indelible impression. Many of these stories which Madhubala portrayed on screen were love stories set in the backdrop of poverty, exploitation, complicated family relations, and misery peppered with songs, which are still heard in many Indian households today.

“Madhubala lived a short life but achieved a lot in that short span of time. In those days, acting was not considered appropriate for women but with her remarkable acting skills and timeless beauty, she created a mark for herself and is remembered with warmth till date,” Madhubala’s sister, Madhur Brij, told the Press Trust of India, during the unveiling of a wax statue of ‘Anarkali’ at the Madame Tussauds museum.

Read also: [In PICTURES] 26 Rare Photos of Madhubala to Remind You Why She Was Such a Goddess 

Despite churning out memorable performances, her last years were very difficult. A broken relationship with Dilip Kumar, also a Bollywood icon, allegedly over the antics of her father, a difficult marriage with singer/actor Kishore Kumar and congenital heart condition discovered in 1954, made life difficult.

By 1960, her condition had deteriorated significantly. “Due to her ailment, her body would produce extra blood, and it would spill out from the nose and mouth. The doctor would come home and extract bottles of blood. She also suffered from the pulmonary pressure of the lungs. She coughed all the time. Every four to five hours she had to be given oxygen or else would get breathless. She was confined to bed for nine years and was reduced to just bones and skin,” her sister told Filmfare.

On 23 February 1969, shortly after her 36th birthday, she passed away before her directorial debut with the film Farz Aur Ishq. What she leaves behind, however, are memories, and through these five songs, we will celebrate the life of Madhubala, the eternal symbol of love.

Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya (Mughal-e-Azam, 1960)
The song remains the quintessential anthem for love which is unbound and defiant in the face of any obstacle. In fact, the song title literally translates to “I have loved, so what is there to fear?”

Composed by Naushad, and sung by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar, the song sees Madhubala, who plays the role of a courtesan Anarkali, defiantly expressing her love for Mughal Prince Salim (who goes onto become Emperor Jahangir), despite the strong disapproval of his father Emperor Akbar, played by Prithviraj Kapoor.

Aaiye Meharbaan (Howrah Bridge, 1958)
In this film, Madhubala plays the role of Edna, an Anglo-Indian cabaret dancer, opposite Ashok Kumar. Composed by legendary composer OP Nayyar, and sung by the iconic Asha Bhonsle, Aaiye Meharbaan is a song that has stood the test of time. “Asha ji sang many lovely, beautiful songs for Madhubala. Perhaps it was Madhubala’s naughty smile, her coquettish behaviour; it used to go very well with Asha ji’s voice. Asha Bhonsle’s voice suited Madhubala perfectly,” said lyricist Javed Akhtar, in an episode of The Golden Years: 1950-1975.

Achcha Ji Main Haari Chalo Maan Jaao Naa, (Kala Pani, 1958)
In this cult classic, Madhubala plays the role of Asha, a journalist and landlord. Starring opposite Dev Anand, this is a song many couples have played to make up after a tiff. Composed by the legendary SD Burman, and sung by the unique combination of Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhonsle, the song is marked by a remarkable cadence, which both Madhubala and Dev Anand enact to perfection.

Ek Ladki Bhigi Bhagi Si (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, 1958)
This song requires little description. In this slapstick comedy, Kishore Kumar plays a hapless car mechanic who fixes the broken vehicle of Madhubala’s character. “Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhaagi Si” is arguably the most iconic song from the film composed by SD Burman, and sung by Kishore Kumar.

Mantoubala, Recorded at Columbia Studio’s in Athens on March 29, 1959
Madhubala, known as the “Venus of Indian cinema” for her remarkable beauty, was an incredibly popular figure in Greece during the late 1950s and early 60s. Such was her popularity that Greek singer Stelios Kazantidis penned a song in dedication to her ethereal beauty in the classic Greek genre of Rebetico/Laiko. Kazantzidis composed this song after he saw a Hindi film starring Madhubala.
Loosely translated into English, a segment of the lyrics read:
“Madhubala / love me sweet/ I long for you to come near me again.
Since I am lost, I call your name with pain
Madhubala, Madhubala”

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He is an engineer, he is a camera technician, and now, he has brought home an Oscar!

Vikas Sathaye was born in 1967 in Pune. After his schooling in Mulund, he shifted to Pune to pursue his Bachelor of Engineering from VIT (Vishwakarma Institute of Technology) after which he moved to Bengaluru for his masters in instrumentation from Indian Institute of Science (IISC).

After his studies, Vikas taught in Cummins College of Engineering for Women in Pune. Thereon, he shifted to New Zealand in 2009 where his journey to the Oscars began.

He shifted to Queensland to work with Shotover Camera Systems. “One of the reasons to start this company in Queensland was the natural beauty and stunning scenery which attract a lot of film producers and directors,” Vikas told The Times of India.

Here, they designed a mount that could be fit on a helicopter and would minimise the vibrations that reach the camera, smoothening the shots.

“The camera mount gets attached to the base of a helicopter, which carries the camera and lens. Its primary function is to eliminate any vibration from reaching the camera and thus getting steady footage. The other function for the camera mount is to move the camera head in the desired direction as required by the camera operator, who sits inside the helicopter and uses a joystick to control the camera head movement,” he told TOI.

They received an Oscar 2018 award in the Scientific and Technical category “for the concept, design, engineering and implementation of the Shotover K1 Camera Systems.”

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has described this as a “six-axis stabilised aerial camera mount” which has “enhanced ability to frame shots while looking straight down.”

You may also like: Being Bihari: How This National-Award Winning Filmmaker Is Using Cinema to Challenge Stereotypes

This camera mount is called Shotover K1 Camera System and was the brainchild of a four-member team- Vikas Sathaye, John Coyle, Bran Hurndell and Shane Buckham. It has been used in the filming of blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy, Dunkirk and Kong-Skull Island.

Featured image sources: Shotover/ Facebook

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At 3.45 am on 25th February, my WhatsApp buzzed with a message. I chose to read it at 6.15 am when I woke up.

‘Veteran actor Sri Devi passes away in Dubai,’ is what the message read.

I re-read it and immediately logged on to Google to check the veracity of this message. When the news became certain, the sadness gripped me hard.

At about 9 am I received another forward which spoke about the life lessons we must take away from this fine actor’s life – and death.

This piece is a very measured response to such messages. What I felt immediately after reading the ‘life lessons’ was immense anger, followed by disgust and then extreme sadness at how petty people are.

I would have liked to write this piece in that frame of mind. But I took a long break to consider what, and why, I must say what I am saying.

1. A section of you believes Sridevi brought this upon herself due to the pressure of needing to look good at all times. Here’s what I’d like to say – Have you ever interacted with Sridevi to understand from her, firsthand, the pressures she was under?

Did she ever speak to you about how much work it was? Or did you ever discuss how she likes to look?

If the answer to all or any of the above questions is ‘no’ then you have little to no right to pass judgement on what may or may not have caused her any trouble.

2. The cardiac arrests were a direct result of facelifts, botox therapy and lip surgeries she allegedly underwent, another set of messages claimed.

To this, I’d like to ask you if you were the surgeon or part of the operating team for all these procedures? If yes, then isn’t there a doctor-patient confidentially you are blatantly breaching? And if no, on what grounds are you making these sweeping medical statements?

Unless you are a qualified medical professional who has had legal access to Sridevi’s medical records, I urge you to keep your non-medical, unsubstantiated opinion to yourself.

3. Husband Boney Kapoor’s love for his late wife is also being questioned. Speculations are rife about why he didn’t ‘intervene’ and whether he wanted Sridevi as ‘arm candy’.

Firstly, this speculation is beyond petty.

It’s their relationship, and we don’t know much about it. Secondly, it is a bit sad that one is assuming Sridevi was essentially Boney Kapor’s doll or something – doomed to do whatever he has.

And even then, even if somehow Boney Kapoor ‘intervened’ in a manner that would have appeased some sections, it is nearly sure that another group would call him interfering and controlling. There is no winning this, so the speculations should end.

Ultimately, what makes you believe that Sridevi was being forced to look a certain way? She had the right and might have even enjoyed looking however she wanted.

4. A section of you has referred to her as a ‘clothes horse’ – i.e. a frame on which clothes are usually hung. What gave you the right to use such a term to describe this ethereal beauty?

As an actor, one is approached by various designers, who take it upon themselves to dress the actor for events. This is a great way for them to showcase their work. How does that make anyone a clothes horse?

Haven’t we loved and cheered her on as she walked wearing a Sabyasachi saree or a Manish Malhotra lehenga?

In any case, taking joy in fashion is wrong, but if she had a collection of luxury cars or bikes, would we call her an ‘engine horse’? This bizarre shaming has no place in our world.

In any case, this is not the time or the place to discuss such things. You have no right to circulate such vicious messages, or to make such sweeping generalisations about life and death.

The lady being discussed has entertained and regaled us with her performances many times, and she has time and again, in interviews, reiterated how important her family is to her.

Do you realise how much pain your message would cause the family? Is that of no concern to you?

My earnest and humble request is that we stop indulging such frivolous talk. Let us nip it in the bud and not forward these messages. Let’s show some respect to the departed soul.

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