Anamitra Roy, Indian filmmaker and no-budget forum member talks to Ian McCormick about his life and work in this interview conducted on 4th March 2012.
See previous blog entry for a critical and contextual
review of Anamitra Roy's film work and ideas.
How long have you been making films?
I don’t know if I’ve been making films. I
think I’m mocking films because the set up one needs to make films is not
accessible for me. I just shoot with whatever I get. I write scripts keeping in
mind my resources like friends who can act, or the lights and cameras I and my
friends own etc. I started editing back in 2006. I used to choose just any
stock and chop something out of it. In 2008, Sriparna, my girlfriend, bought a
second hand miniDV and in the same year I met poet Arupratan Ghosh. We made the
first film together in the month of December. There was another guy named
Arkapratim Mukherjee with us. I acted in and edited the film. It was not
something good, mostly a failure except the fact that this film caused the
birth of Little Fish Eat Big Fish, our forum.
How did you first discover your interest in
film making?
In 2004, I watched Four Hundred Blows, yes,
the famous one by Truffaut. I found that film to be different, I mean, in my
country and my society, watching good films is not a regular thing for a
teenager. Television and the industrial products have blinded our youth
successfully. You’ll be amazed to know that there are independent filmmakers
even in the Bollywood (like most of the people in India
understand something related to Anurag Kashyap or Abhay Deol when they come
across the term). I used to be a poet-writer. I used to write for Bengali
‘Little Magazines’ (I still do that sometimes). But the problem here is that
parents are sending their children to English Medium schools often so that
their next generation doesn’t have to face the problems they had regarding
language. This is how the mother-tongue is becoming an unimportant second
language for Bengalis. They are not finding any interest in their own
literature. Then there are the big publishing houses and media to suppress the
alternative and promote trash. I wanted to break this barrier. I thought
audio-visual would be a good medium to reach out. Probably that’s why we have
hard-coded English subtitles in all our works.
What was your first ever film? (Tell us
about it)
The first film that I made? Well, that’s
quite a story.
The film was called “Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script”. It was a part of the Five
No Budget Films (2010) compilation. The film is available on Youtube. It is one
of the most popular films produced by our forum. Lot of people have praised it,
but no one ever raised a question, which is rather depressing. Some people also
consider this to be a tribute to Godard, but that’s not true either. It was a
critique of Kolkata’s worship and illusion of Godard. I mocked Godard there. My
face was painted full white like Europeans, but my hands did reveal the colour
of my native skin. I distorted my accent but what I spoke was Bengali. All I wanted
was to break the illusion that has given birth to an all-talk-and-no-work
culture as well as to provide a theoretical basis for the ‘Indian No-Budget
Filmmaking’ which was started by us.
What camera did you use and how long did it
take to make?
It was Sriparna’s miniDV, that was the only
camera we could avail for free at that point of time. Developing the concept
took three months before I wrote the script in October, 2009. I planned to
shoot the whole thing in just a day but it took one more as the first day’s
shoot was interrupted and we had to shift the location due to excessive mass
gathering. The post-production took almost two weeks as we had to dub some
dialogues and the tape was damaged in some parts. We had to capture those
damaged shots in slow motion and then reconstruct the sound for it which was
completely out of plan.
How do you find working with others on a
film? What works best?
It depends on some other factors. If I have
a tight script I’d just like people to follow my instructions. But if I don’t
have one I’d like people to be imaginative and improvise. For instance, Secret
Footage_The Encounter was a film without a script. But I had the whole idea
inside about the sequences and things I wanted to shoot. I shared the concept
and the purpose with actors and asked them to perform accordingly. It was the
same with the character of the journalist (played by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya)
in JLG Had No Script. He knew about the situation in Lalgarh better than I
did. So I just told him where to focus, the dialogues were absolutely on him.
And for Memories… of a Dead Township (2012) I told my father and sister to
improvise on the basic melody (the theme) as I thought the music must resemble
the memory in pattern, that is to say, which can not be reconstructed and
whatever you play is the perfect and the imperfect at the same time.
Do you make a living from film? How do you
support yourself in your work?
Yes, I do. I’m a freelancer. I work on
commissioned projects as Editor, Director, cinematographer or whatever just to
earn a living and to continue working independently outside the mainstream
industry. See, I have this problem of ethics. I feel guilty whenever I think of
applying for foreign-funds for some documentary or something. My govt. does not
support my initiative and they better not waste money I feel. If they have
money they should try to provide food and basic infrastructure for people. I
have not applied for any film fund yet. But maybe I’ll do that too one day in
order to survive.
Where do you get your ideas about film
from?
From life, from the content always. And my
life is my content.
How do you work on an idea and develop it?
I walk with the basic schema inside. I keep
on looking at people’s faces, posters, signboards, I try to hear others’
conversation and add up whatever seems suitable. I steal from the nature,
whatever is passing by me.
What for you is the film making and
creative process?
A method of communication. See, the basics
are the same. I don’t write or make film until I feel like. I have no such urge
to become famous or a celebrity. If I feel that I need instant relief I sit
with a pen and a paper and start writing. I keep on working on it until I’m
satisfied. Same thing happens with my films. First, an idea comes to my mind
which I can not convey in words. I take a walk, I try to understand it myself.
Whenever I feel that I know it all now, I start to steal, as I said earlier.
Who are your favourite film makers?
There are no favourite film makers for me. There
are favourite films only. I one I feel most close to is from my country and my
language – Ritwik Kumar Ghatak. He is special for me. Except him, I like a lot
of filmmakers from all around the world and from all the genres almost. The
range is like from Bela Tarr to Emir Kusturica. Or from Andrei Tarkovsky to
Mikhail Kalatozov . From Renoir to Godard to Breillat sometimes. Kenji
Mizoguchi to Takashi Miike; it’s hard to specify really. Even Jon Jost.
I love films.
Which people or works (in any art form)
have been influential for you?
Almost everything which can be called ‘art’
has been an inspiration to me in different times. If I try to name all of them
the list is going to be much longer that the incomplete one above.
Why is community or collaboration
significant in your work?
I need my voice to be heard. It’s better to
sing a chorus than shouting alone in the street. We didn’t even have money to
submit to any international film festival till this year. So, if I have 10
friends to watch my film my filmmaker friend knows another ten. Ten of us
together can reach out to 100 people. That was the basic concept behind Little
Fish Eat Big Fish.
Except that, community is the place every
human being belongs to. The origin of my family is actually Bikrampur Pargana, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Before the riot (I really don’t know why) our family moved to
Agartala, Tripura, India and became the royal priests. I, at this point of time, live in a
district called Hooghly in West Bengal, India and I don’t like the fact that I don’t have
any connection with the origin. Everything was alright, I got this gut feeling
since I realized that my life has changed a lot after we moved out of Dunlop
Estate (The place in my last film). Maybe that’s the reason, just because I miss
the thing it becomes highlighted in my works.
What do you think about Hollywood and
big-budget film?
They understand what business is i.e how to
invest wisely to fool others and make a lot of profit out of that.
What perceptions or impressions do you have
about life and work for film makers in Great Britain?
Not much knowledge really. Chaplin, Orson
Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Michael
Winterbottom – are they what you mean? Chaplin is almost everyone’s all-time favourite.
I love his works and the story of his life. But these are the names I came to
know because of the big industry. I don’t have a perception really except that
some of them are / were great!
What challenges do you face as a film maker
in India?
Almost everything is a challenge here or
one might say there are no challenges at all. I don’t get a theatrical release,
but how does it matter to me anyway. India has
nothing to do with it. Had I been in Burma
things would have been the same for what we are doing. The only irritating
factor is Bollywood and its influence over people. There used to be good people
in the movie industry earlier. For instance I love Bimal Roy, Kishore Kumar or
RD Burman or Tulsi Chakraborty. There used to be good films once upon a time
even in the Bengali Film Industry. The most popular film in Bengal for all times is ‘Saptapadi’
probably, an Uttam Kumar-Suchitra Sen starrer. Yes, they used to copy Hollywood realism but it really
doesn’t matter when I compare ‘Saptapadi’ or ‘Sare Chuattar’ to some ‘Pagloo’
in Bengal or ‘Don 2’ in India.
The main challenge is to keep on working
without going insane, I think.
What will you be working on next?
I have already started raising funds for a
90 minute feature. Right now I’m calling it ‘The 0ne Rupee Film Project’. It’s
going to be a film on the independent Film Scenario of India.
What are your fears about culture/politics
for the future?
We are already going through the worst.
What’s left to fear about? The civil war is here. Govt. has launched Operation
Green Hunt to let MNCs loot the minerals without facing much resistance. In the
name of killing Maoists they are killing or putting behind the bars just anyone
they suspect. The police is ruthless in Bengal, Orrissa, Andhra, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and wherever people are
trying to resist. The Armed Forces Special Power Act is still on in Manipur.
There are threats of war with China and
Pakistan.
The so called democratic political parties are engaging in armed
clashes, killing people in the name of political colour. And also the only
option we have except this Sonia Gandhi – Manmohan Singh rule at the central is
the great communal Bharatiya Janata Party led by persons like Narendra Modi and
L K Advani. Maoists are also killing people in Police, Military or anyone they
suspect to be an agent of the govt. I mean, what’s going on, I really don’t
understand!
In this June, it’ll be two years since I was hit by a bomb in my
own hometown. Culture is great! You can hear it coming out of any local shop
during any festival. We need naked women in our films to become recognized
independent filmmakers.
What is there left to fear, can you tell
me?
Do you have a dream project for the future?
Anything or everything I work on becomes my
dream project for that point of time as I know that life can throw me in a
gutter just any day and I might not be able to make films anymore. I’m on the
edge and I don’t feel that my society has accepted me whole-heartedly. So, now,
my dream project is to make this crowd-funded feature. I know I will be able.
After completion only, I’ll think about the future and the next dream.
Thanks for your support, it means a lot.
Posts
