Kanhaiya is being used as an intellectual terrorist: Vivek Agnihotri
Buddha In a Traffic Jam, Vivek Agnihotri’s latest film that is said to be loosely based on the JNU episode, was actually penned in 2011. It is just a matter of coincidence that what he had in mind for his film, actually played out in reality in the JNU campus over a month ago. At that time, says the director, all he had was an “important story to narrate”, based on the nexus between professors and NGOs and Naxalites, and how students were used as “intellectual terrorists”. What he had not foreseen was the emergence of a Kanhaiya Kumar, a university student, fighting for a certain cause, subjected to a media trial for his “anti-national” remarks. Vivek says, “People keep asking me how did I manage to wrap up a film on the JNU unrest in such a short time. The fact remains that it is mere coincidence that the story is playing itself in real life.” He just held a screening of the film at the IIT-Bombay campus on Wednesday. The response, he says, was positive.
The film which stars Anupam Kher, Arunoday Singh and Vivek’s wife Pallavi Joshi in pivotal roles, has already won the Best Original Screenplay award at the Madrid Film Festival (2015), Best Actor at the Dadasaheb Phalke Awards(2015) and was also officially nominated at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MAMI) 2014 in the India Gold category. Last month when the film’s team tried to organise a screening at the JNU campus, there was trouble. Anupam Kher claimed that the varsity authorities gave a no-go. Recalling that episode, Vivek says, “The dean at the university told us that they didn’t want to screen the movie at that time because university mei mahaul theek nahin hain. Two days later, they screened a film that had a left-liberal view. I wondered how is it that they could stall one film and screen another ” After much protests, the film was screened in an open-air auditorium after a student from the college got in touch with the director. “We expected some 200-300 students but the response was phenomenal. It was so packed that there were students sitting six inches away from the screen, while some stood and watched it from start to finish,” adds the director.
While some are making an icon out of Kanhaiya Kumar, Vivek says that he sees him as nothing but a victim of political agendas. He doesn’t mince words when asked to elaborate on his stance. “Kanhaiya is a buddha stuck in a traffic jam. People have created a youth icon out of him, but they are out to destroy him. Barkha Dutt will exploit and later destroy him. Sitaram Yechury (the CPI(M) general secretary) will do the same. This is as good as Talibans who plant jihadis among the common man. Kanhaiya is young, and he is being used as an intellectual terrorist to wage a war against the state.”
Making the film was an uphill task even though the subject matter at that time was not a national debate yet. Getting producers and distributors on board seemed impossible at one point. “It would have probably got a release earlier had I slipped in an item number or two!” jokes Vivek. “Distributing the film turned out to be troublesome — corporates didn’t want to put in their money because it was a controversial topic,” he adds.
Vivek’s filmography includes commercial entertainers like the Emraan Hashmi-starrer Chocolate and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal that featured John Abraham and Arshad Warsi in lead roles. When it came to this film, he says, no big-ticket actors were eager to feature in it. His other project, which is based on the Bofors scandal and the Emergency period, was also met with reluctance from stars. He says, “None of them were keen on taking up the project because of its political context. Stars want to work only if it is a Hollywood remake otherwise it is a tough road ahead. Personally, I was stuck in a web of mediocrity. It was a perfect time for me to experiment since I have been in the industry for quite some time. I had nothing to lose.”
This film started out as a student-led initiative, he says. During his workshops on creative thinking at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, students suggested making a documentary on the Naxal issue. “Since a topic on Naxalism requires a longer run time, I said why not make a feature film ” The institution was kind enough to let him shoot the film at the university. Hyderabad-based entrepreneur Suresh Chukkapalli came on board with funding once he was told about the plot. Actors Anupam Kher and Mahi Gill were on board within ten minutes of narration. He says, “I narrated the story to Mahi Gill on the phone and she said a yes. Arunoday was perfect for the role since he had returned from the US — we needed someone with an American accent.” The shoot was wrapped up in 40 days.
Having had a good run in festivals, the film will finally find a theatrical release next month but the director isn’t channelising his energies towards promoting the film the Bollywood way. Instead, he is looking at taking his film to institutes across India. He says, “This is a small film and shouldn’t be judged by box-office numbers. As a filmmaker, I am going to showcase these films across institutes for as long as I can. This isn’t a story about me — it is a story about India.”
