When he started making films seven years ago with Tanu Weds Manu, Anand L Rai wanted to focus on telling stories the right way. He wanted people to fall in love despite troubled times and understand each other with their weaknesses and strengths. “As a person, I want a lot of peace and happiness which is why I want love stories to keep happening,” he said.
His cinema tells tales of a world closer to reality in which characters are flawed and the women are three-dimensional. Tanu, he said, was a process while Rumi in Manmarziyaan is a surer character. She is flawed but definite. “I caught on very early that real characters work and chose to bring out the real Indian girl, warts and all,” he said.
To explore the real, he delves into stories from the smaller cities like Amritsar, Kanpur, Lucknow. “Maybe I was try to bring a piece of me in every film. My stories look real because I place them in small towns where the middle class and I belong to,” he said.
His latest film, Manmarziyan, starring Taapsee Pannu, Abhishek Bachchan and Vicky Kaushal, was helmed by Anurag Kashyap, who is known for making films which are far removed from the sanitised versions of love that the Hindi film industry peddles. “He’s a different man, more sensitive and sincere. He’s also ageing and there’s a change in him. This is a great phase for him to tell a love story,” said he.
The producer thinks that it is not enough to make films that find acceptance in the international arena. The audience also has to grow simultaneously. “We have a lot to do but we are progressing. We have to be very confident about ourselves and more transparent. We should be able to tell stories without any pretence or fear of success and failure. We have to figure out the reason for telling a story. For most makers, it’s about survival. Instead of making safe films that the audience likes, we have to challenge frontiers,” he said. And goes on to add that the digital platform isn’t the only media where bolder subjects should be explored. Instead, the censorship system has to be overhauled.
While the digital medium is interesting, he said, it is a new one and we are yet to understand it completely. “It makes you feel that the digital platform is making the content and approach bolder and gutsy by doing strong subjects. But it has its own journey. In the next six months, it will be about the form and the kind of stories. We should deal with our film censors first rather than moving to digital because it gives more freedom,” he said. “I believe that we shouldn’t use digital as a crutch,” he said. For him, the digital explosion didn’t make much difference for he was telling stories on sensitive issues with a lighter note from the beginning. While film festivals can help find new talent, it is more crucial to rise with the audience, he reiterates. “It can’t happen that the makers are international but the audience isn’t. They should accept mature films too. There is no major differences left between parallel and commercial cinema. The same way the lines between international and Indian cinema should blur,” said he.
From temporary impotency in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan to adultery, Rai has explored a wide range of topics. And with the Section 377 being struck down by the Supreme Court, there will be more stories that are sensitive, real and definite as homosexuality has been decriminalised.
“By liking different kinds of subjects, the audience is giving us strength. Now, when you make a film like Tanu weds Manu, by liking a character like Tanu, it gives you encouragement to expand boundaries and create a Rumi. That’s why the birth of a producer in me happened,” he said.
Instead of going to somebody and expressing that I want to tell a story a certain way, he felt it was better to make a platform where like-minded people came together and started telling stories straight to the audience. “Let’s delete the via via zone. Let’s make a platform where people like me, Anurag, Amit Masotkar and RS Prasanna are there. We started telling stories straight to the audience,” he said.
Asked if he sees a parallel with the Progressive Writers’ Association, that included writers like Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto, he said that the latter was a product of his times. “After 1947, as story tellers there hasn’t been much change or a drastic move. For writers to come up with a game-changer, there was a lot of meat when people like Manto were there. They had so much to say. Now we deal with society but they dealt with the nation. Our problems aren’t the same as them. When those legendary writers were writing, they had so much to observe and put across. The current society won’t make a Manto. There is a lot of talent but the situation and the those circumstances aren’t present anymore,” he said.