To make movies on real-life events has fascinated Bollywood. Unfortunately, most such movies come and go without making a ripple at the box office. SHAlINI SAKSENA speaks to directors who say that such a film works only if a filmmaker does not fall to box office compulsions to sensationalise the incident
Whenever there is a breaking news about a sensational crime, Bollywood is always ready to make a movie on it — either on the sequence of the crime or on the prime culprit and the events that led him or her to commit the crime.
However, unlike Hollywood where movies on true events like Catch Me If You Can, Schindler’s list and more recently, Zero Dark Thirty stick to reality and get critical acclaim, Bollywood fails to make an impact. Movies like Nirbhaya, Attacks of 26/11 and Anjuna Beach not only failed at the box office; but were also criticised severely for being in bad taste and creating sensationalism. In fact, very few would even recollect when these movies were released, let alone them being made.
The latest incidents to join the list of movies to be made on true crime is Talvar directed by Vishal Bharadwaj and a still untitled one in which Rakhi Sawant will be playing Indrani Mukherjea.
Sawant has already shot for 10 days and says the movie will be ready for release in six months. Even though the movie has a small budget — it is only `6 crore — it will reveal things about Indrani and the case that have not been talked about in the media so far.
“I have known Indrani for seven-eight years. The movie will show her in both negative and positive light. In my opinion, no mother kills her child unless there are some greater forces at work. Probably, the same holds true for her. Also, Indrani has had a past where there have been three husbands so it is not as if she has reached where is she without making compromises,” Sawant says, adding that the film will have some semi-nude and kissing scenes that she will be doing for the very first time and the script demands it.
She tells you that the reason why many movies fail to recreate the shock-value and fade into oblivion is because there is always fear involved.
“When the movie is being made, it is still an ongoing investigation. One has to be careful not to step on someone’s foot and touch a nerve that can land the person who is making the film into a problem,” Sawant says.
So why make movies on such subjects if the industry is unable to get a grip on it to begin with or has a bad scriptIJ “There is nothing like a good or a bad script. It depends on the viewers, how they see the movie and perceive it. To make a movie on true events is always fascinating as there is a need to know more than what actually happened. To sensationalise it, is like a slap on one’s face. To begin with it is a heinous and a gruesome crime. One doesn’t see the need to revisit it. The good part about No One Killed Jessica was that it came with positivity. It was not just about the killing; it was about a sister’s fight for justice. That is what caught the viewers’ attention,” Kabir Sadanand, who has made films like Fugly says.
He also tells you that movies like Anjuna Beach, Nirbhaya, etc are indie films. “In my opinion, what happens when one makes movies on true events is that there is already so much that has already been said that unless the film has a new angle to it without the need to deviate from reality and add props, the film will have no takers and it will fail at the box office,” Sadanand says.
Such movies have not only disappeared into oblivion, but those who have seen them say that they should have never been made. Why have a disco song in the movie on NirbhayaIJ It takes away the gruesomeness of the crime and makes a mockery of the victim and her family. Why would Ram Gopal Verma want to enter the Taj in Mumbai just days after the attacks and say that “nothing but curiosity prompted the visitIJ” This is not just insensitive but also in bad taste.
However Kunal Kohli, director of movies like Fanaa and Teri Meri Kahaani, says that it is not true that films based on true events are always in bad taste. “look at the promos of Talvar, they are great. Such a film is unlikely to be insensitive or in bad taste. Films that people have not even heard about are not worth a mention. Why talk about such filmsIJ One must look at films made by big banners and good directors and not at films which even the industry has not heard of,” Kohli says.