Director Ajay Bahl chatted with Karan Bhardwaj about B.A.Pass, an erotic drama about a college boy that passed the censors
When a young, small town boy comes to Delhi for higher studies, he is seduced by an unhappy married woman known as Sarika Aunty. Set amidst the neon-lit bylanes of Delhi’s Paharganj area, Ajay Bahl’s B.A.Pass unfolds as an erotic human drama between the two. The film which travelled to a few international film festivals including Montreal, shows lead actors Shilpa Shukla and Shadab Kamal in explicit lovemaking scenes. The trailer has sent the Internet world into a tizzy, with nearly four lakh hits on YouTube within a month. Bahl gets candid about his cinema...
We heard you had a troubled life...
I wanted to be a cricketer. I enrolled in a school to qualify to play for the state. Once I quit cricket, I quit High School. I was maladjusted and had issues with authority, including my parents. So I was constantly running away from my house. I needed money, which led to many career choices. I was a door-to-door salesman for Aquaguard. I did music piracy. (This was the 90s before FM days and I would get friends or girlfriends living abroad to send latest English songs, which I re-recorded and sold to music shops in Delhi). I was a drifter. Then 11 years back, I read a book on filmmaking at a friends’ house. Cinematography appealed. So I got interested.
Why choose erotic drama as your first filmIJ
B.A.Pass was not meant to be a feature, but one of three short stories linked together as a movie. I chanced on Delhi Noir an anthology of stories published by HarperCollins India and fell in love. I shortlisted three. The Railway Aunty by Mohan Sikka, Hissing Cobras by Nalinaksha Bhattacharya and Small Fry by Meera Nair. Due to its cinematic setting, complex characters and compact scale, I shot The Railway Aunty first. Eventually, the story wanted expression as a full length feature, so, I didn’t stand in the way.
Where did you shootIJ
Extensively in and around Paharganj, Sarai Rohilla, Barakhamba Road, Old Delhi and Chattarput farm houses. We encountered a bizarre experience at night on the New Delhi railway station bridge. A male actor playing a transgender man was to solicit and get picked by two men in a car. I was setting up the shot. Suddenly a car came and stopped. The actor got in and the car sped off. Five minutes later, imagine my surprise when I saw two men supposed to be the ones picking the actor up, sitting around, sipping tea. Our actor had left with total strangers looking for transgenders. A minute later, I got a call with the surprised actor screaming his lungs out. We had to chase that car to Noida to get him back. After that, he refused to play his part. It was a lucky break because we discovered and cast Happy Ranjit, an NSD trained actor.
Tell us about your struggle to get finances, distributors....
B.A.Pass is a film cleared by Indian censors, who are supposed to be regressive. One would think corporates are more open to films that push boundaries, but that remarkably is not the case. A CFO (chief financial officer) of a large firm said although he loved the film, their organisation was a family entertainment company. And their IPO share price could drop if they got involved. See, B.A.Pass has been nominated for the Golden Zenith at the Montreal Film Festival, which is among the 14 ‘A’ class rated festivals in the world. It was nominated in best director, actor, film and screenplay categories at the New York Indian Film Festival. I could go on. I am amused how uncomfortable we still are as a society when it comes to dealing with themes regarding sexuality.
Was there a tiff with censorsIJ
They cleared B.A. Pass with an A rating and no frame cut. That is a big win. The jury loved the film. The only comment was they wished there were more films like B.A.Pass being made. We got the Censor certificate in January this year.
Critics allege that sleaze and porn is served as erotica.
Sex is a huge part of human existence and depriving cinema would be grave injustice to the medium. To use sex as sleaze or to grab eyeballs is a decision that rests with the filmmaker and is for his aesthetic and ethical consideration. HarperCollins India have reprinted Delhi Noir with a still from B.A.Pass as its cover.
Are we ready for eroticaIJ
It is never the genre but the story that engages audiences. Good stories, told well, work.