Tula Goenka has interviewed 28 cinema legends from different parts of the country. She tells Samiksha Raj that Indian movies have plenty to offer other than Bollywood
Did you know that a lot of people suggested Yash Chopra to take up acting because of his good looksIJ The superhit song jai ho of Slumdog Millionaire was actually recorded for Subhash Ghai’s Yuvraaj (2008)! But Ghai refused it as the song didn’t suit his characters. Such unknown facts are neither found in Internet nor in gossip magazines. In fact, the strength and wideness of the Indian cinema is pretty undiscovered.
To make us up, close and personal with ace directors, author Tula Goenka has come with Not Just BOllYWOOD (NJB). The book aims to challenge this stereotypical writing about the Indian film industry. It also features a unique proposition wherein the author has tried capturing the finer nuances of movie-making from as many as 28 stalwarts of the industry, who have directed different genres of films from popular, independent parallel cinema to multi-dimensional regional cinema in various languages. “People in the West consider every Indian movie to be Bollywood. Even Satyajit Ray is considered a Bollywood director which he isn’t. I feel it is a derogatory reference,” says Tula Goenka as she promises that her book debunks a lot of myths about Indian cinema.
Goenka has been living in US for past 20 years. She is an associate professor in Syracuse University, New York. In 2002, she came to Delhi and got awestruck by the vibrancy of the cinema. “I fell in love all over again — madly, passionately and irrevocably — with its heartfelt emotions and its melodious cacophony,” remarks Tula. But, by her own admission, there was nothing — neither in any of the bookstores nor on the Internet — that deeply covers a lot on the Indian cinema. “So I set out on this incredible journey to explore the world’s largest film industry to know what made it click as a mass industry,” quips Tula. A breast cancer survivor, Goenka’s indomitable spirit made her compile this book.
Not Just Bollywood is a record of lively and enriching conversations with some of the most celebrated directors of the Indian cinema. They have come out of the closet to share a host of things, from deciding when to include a song in the movie, shooting in foreign locales, recounting the first day as a director to meeting the expectations of different niche audiences. “I travelled the entire length and breadth of the country and also abroad, to capture candid answers to my queries.”
Tula’s interview includes incisive questions like “Can film-making be learnt or is it an inheritanceIJ”, “What kind of a director is one on the setsIJ”, “What is one’s thoughts on corporatisation of BollywoodIJ”, “Why the sudden obsession with entertainment-oriented run-of-the-mill stuffIJ”, “What role does cinema play in society”, “Why isn’t Hindi cinema more realisticIJ” and also “What it is to be a female director in the industryIJ”.
“I have divided the book into sections according to language, and geographical regions — north, south, east, west and the world, and then listed directors in each geographical section in chronological order, based on when they made their directorial debut,” says Tula.
Starting with a verbose introduction, which provides a sneak-peek into the overall flow of the book with its classification into distinct regions of Indian cinema, the author has taken Bollywood as the first entity, listing down directors from the “North” such as Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Ashutosh Gowariker and others who have made their mark here. “Parallel or Middle Cinema” section captures ace directors Shyam Benegal, Prakash Jha and their ilk. Closing the chapter on film-makers from the “North”, Tula has written about Ram Gopal Varma, Nagesh Kukunoor and Anurag Kashyap among others under “Indie or Multiplex Cinema” category.
The section on directors from the “South” is relatively brief wherein regional maestros like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Girish Kasaravalli have lent their invaluable insights. “East” focusses on Bengali cinema with Rituparno Ghosh and Mrinal Sen. Jabbar Patel, a political film-maker from Maharashtra, forms a part of the “West” section. The book draws close with a sense of déjà vu (already seen) for Tula, as she writes on Mira Nair, with whom she worked as film editor. She shares her profound thoughts in the section “The World” where Nair talks on The Namesake, Salaam Bombay and Pather Panchali.
“This entire cinema is a spectrum of high quality experiments. Indian film-makers keep going back and forth and somebody who has made a serious movie also experiments with a masala flick here,” says Tula.