Anushka Sharma turns producer with her unconventional project NH10. She says India must adopt a rating system instead of imposing censorship. By Karan Bhardwaj
She was true to her salt. She guarded her words cautiously, ditched ‘cricket-related’ queries smartly and took on censorship very eloquently. Anushka Sharma seems to have learnt the tricks of her business in little time. Having done some eight movies so far, the candid actor has now made the boldest decision of her career by not only acting in an unconventional movie NH10 but also putting her finances in it. But she says she’s an artiste to the core, who’s driven by her instincts, and not by what others talk or assume about her. “I don’t make decisions on basis of how they would occur to others. I’m always driven by my guts. My generation has grown up watching great cinema. Young filmmakers are already breaking the mould. Vikramaditya Motwane from Phantom, our co-producer, made Udaan which was so refreshing. So it’s time that such movies are encouraged. And being a commercial actor only enables you to do unconventional movies if you believe in them. I believe in the strength of characters and stories. If I like the script, I will do it. I want people to see me in a different avatar. When the trailer came out, we didn’t anticipate this kind of feedback. It was superb,” she said.
The actor ignored backchats on her cricketer beau Virat Kohli during the conference even before the discussion could surface. “Kuch bhi! Bina sar paer ki baat (Anything! There’s not head or tail to your conversation),” she hit back in a witty tone to a journalist who prodded her on her movie’s release during the world cup. She confided that financing NH10 was an impromptu decision and it allowed her to push her own capabilities. “I have always tried to do things that excite me. I love taking challenges that allow me to test my own capability of doing different things. When I read this script, I knew I hadn’t read anything like that before. I was waiting for something like this. We didn’t face any issues with finances. It was an original script. It was easier to be the producer. It’s a commercial viable venture,” she defended.
NH10 had a face off with CBFC. The censor board recommended some 30 cuts and finally agreed to allow its release with some 10 changes. Anushka affirmed that the cuts have not altered the impact the film intends to have on the audience. However, she insisted on rating system and abandoned the moral policing. “As responsible artistes, we are not doing something out of line. We always make a movie keeping something creative in mind and with all our conviction. Then all of sudden, you are told to change it. It hurts when you are asked to make such cuts. But we have made sure that it doesn’t impact the intensity of our film. We made NH10 because we believed that there’s an audience for it. It would be nice to have rating system in India and not that ‘cutting’ culture. Every individual should be allowed to decide what he or she wants to see. There’s always an exit door in theatre to walk out if you do not approve something. I wish that responsibility is given to us on the basis of our basic intelligence. The bigger problem is that when you start working with so many parameters and restrictions, the original ideas and creativity get killed because you begin to work within boundaries. Original ideas won’t be able to come up with such curbs,” she pointed out.
Though NH10 runs on Anushka’s shoulders, she refuses to demarcate cinema on the basis of gender. She felt that concept-driven movies or great scripts cannot be centered around sexes. She further added that remuneration to actors must be decided on their ability of fetching the audience to theatres. “I have a problem on the division of movies on the basis of gender. I think pay scale must be decided on the bankability of a star. Sometimes, we oversee this factor. We keep smaller budgets when we make movies with heroines while it is totally a different case when a guy is playing the central character in it,” she said.
NH10 is about a couple on a highway journey where they encounter hooligans. The movie is all about survival and their journey of getting out of the trouble. As a person, Anushka said she gets intimidated by certain situations. “Anything that hits you out of ordinary intimidates you. No matter how strong you are, it shakes you up because you are not prepared to deal with it. Initially, it jolts you. Then you take time to adjust to situation,” she said adding that she lived her character thoroughly by becoming a part of her psychological journey. Talking about her own personality and the contrast with the character, she said, “like any other person, I also have many moods. In general, I’m a happy person. I try to make people happy around me. If I’m angry, I don’t pick up rods for sure. Nobody does that. I am not passive aggressive. I will express if I am angry,” she said.
As a producer, she doesn’t have great box office expectations but is hopeful to leave a mark on the new-age cinema. “Success is subjective. It depends on how you measure it. I would like to see it garnering great sums on the box office but I’m not sure about it. I made this movie so that such cinema can be encouraged and more filmmakers can dare to take risks. These films give you a different value which you cannot count. As a producer, I would like to make different movies. I hope this movie gets a shelf life and it is remembered for a long time,” she said. The actor-turned-producer shrugged off direction saying that she is not ready for it. “I am not prepared to direct a movie. I’m not experienced enough to take that responsibility on my shoulders. Direction is about storytelling and I don’t have that vision so far,” she said.