Sui Dhaaga promotes Government’s Make in India and Skill India initiatives. This is not the first film to prop up official campaigns. Toilet Ek Prem Katha and Pad Man raised impactful issues and yet were commercial successes. Sangeeta Yadav looks at this trend
Call it a trend that has gripped Bollywood — telling realistic stories that connect with the audience, or a new formula to endorse Government initiatives. Filmmakers are picking up subjects that were once considered best suited for documentaries. Today, such initiatives have become money-minting subjects raking in hundreds of crores at the Box Office. From Shree Narayan Singh’s Toilet: Ek Prem Katha on Swachch Bharat to R Balki’s Pad Man on menstrual hygiene, to now Sharat Katariya’s Sui Dhaaga on Make In India and Skill India campaigns of the Modi Government, people are going in droves to watch such movies.
For Katariya, the intent behind Sui Dhaaga was not to follow any trend or endorse a Government initiative but to tell a story that was realistic and connected with the masses.
“I never follow a formula or a trend. It was not my intent to make a film to endorse any Government initiative. It so happened that the story of my film was in sync with Skill India and Make In India initiatives. The idea was to tell the story of an underdog who trusts his talent and ability to start something of his own and the problems he faces in his start-up. It talks about how you should start small, go through big hiccups, survive and be hopeful for a bright future. It is the documentation of human spirit in a realistic way,” Katariya asserts.
It was a chance encounter with a tailor in Noida which inspired Katariya to tell the story of tailors trying to make a living out of this profession and fulfilling their dreams.
“This story came to my mind after I saw a tailor in Noida who had his shop under a tree on the footpath. At the end of the day, he would lock his toolbox to the tree and go home. This gave me the idea for a story — that one should make film on a person like him who is trying to earn his daily bread,” Katariya says.
The challenge with making such films is to not end up being preachy and boringly serious. “It was difficult to keep it simple and subtle instead of preachy and in your face. We didn’t want the subject to become propaganda material and somehow we managed to stay away from such pitfalls. When you have actors like Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma, you don’t have to bother about anything because they are very sharp,” Katariya says.
Even Toilet Ek Prem Katha (TEPK), which is a satirical comedy in line with the Government’s campaign against open defecation. Director Singh took inspiration from the real story of Anita Narre from Madhya Pradesh who refused to go back to her husband Shivram’s home because it had no toilet. It was not an easy task to make a film on such a subject.
“TEPK could have gone wrong had it not been mounted well. The basic line of thought to make a film was to create awareness on the subject which could have been narrated in just one line. To hold the audiences’ attention for two-and-a-half hours was not easy. Therefore, a lot effort was put into the development of the script,” Singh tells you.
Starring Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar, TEPK entered the Rs 300 crore club with a gross Box Office collection of $43 million worldwide. It bagged awards like Best Film at Zee Cine Awards and many others.
However, Singh disagrees that there is a sudden rise in films endorsing Government initiatives. “There is no sudden rise. There is absolutely no fixed formula that is being followed today, unlike the films that were made between 1960-80s which had a basic formula. From the 80s, there was a change in the subjects. This was the time when movies on zamindars and dacoits did good business. The 90s saw stylised films which were more content driven. Today, the scriptwriters are given a basic brief about the subject and are expected to come up with an out-of-the-box storyline,” Singh explains. He tells you that it was not as he got no Government support during the making of the film.
“It is only after the movie got rave reviews from all quarters that the film was made tax-free. The Government organised special screenings in sizeable numbers for those who had limited access to theatres. We organised a special screening for the Prime Minister as well. People take these issues seriously. I remember reading in newspapers that a girl from a village in UP refused a marriage proposal as the house had no toilet,” Singh tells you.
R Balki’s Pad Man, inspired from the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social activist from Tamil Nadu who introduced low-cost sanitary pads for rural women, created waves, especially on various social media platforms. Its impact was such that men posted pictures holding sanitary napkins in support of the film and the campaign. Government made sanitary napkins tax-free and showed this film in remote villages.
It is because of Sui Dhaaga that Dhawan and Sharma have been made the brand ambassadors of the Skill India Movement. To shoot this film, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan provided the infrastructure to the makers to shoot the film in Chanderi.
“Sui Dhaaga is a fairytale story. I hope that it is able to give hope to the people and helps them to trust their abilities and talent. This is the message in the film. Go with your gut and make a difference instead of doing what the society wants you to do. If a film is able to make a little difference in the lives of the people and society, my work is done,” Katariya says.
It is not always about promoting Government initiatives. Filmmakers believe in bringing out the biggest issues in society and make a satire on it. After TEPK, Singh latest film Batti Gul Meter Chalu questions the Government propaganda of achhey din. “The inflated bill issue is something that almost everyone has gone through. Everyone can easily relate to this topic. I always was keen in bringing up issues which had mass appeal. It wasn’t something done to ridicule the Government. The idea is to highlight an issue,” Singh says.
