Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Yeh Hai Right Choice - Shekhar Kapur to head FTII

 


I know by now many write-ups would have gone to Editors about the reasons why the saffron brigade appointed Shekar Kapur as FTII President (it still remains to many of us as Pune Film Institute). As a guy who is cynical about such appointments  and always think that many such guys in right places have turned up to be damp squib, the announcement made by Kapur as Chairman of National Film Awards Jury made me give hope. He impressed me. It is something  he said that even the guys from the South who have been on these juries have not dared to.  Quoting a press report - While announcing the National Film Awards , Kapur said he was moved by the regional cinema, particularly Malayalam, and films such as Bhayanakam, Take Off, and Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum. “Unfortunately, mainstream media and Bollywood enjoy a highly incestuous relationship. So the brilliance of the new regional cinema remains hidden from audiences. It’s time for that to change,” he tweeted.

At the awards, the Bandit Queen Director also praised Village Rockstars, the best feature film winner, saying he did not know films from Assam also went to Cannes Film Festival. He has acted with Kamal Haasan in Viswaroopam. I had met him at the Chennai Airport and got introduced to him by our Screen Editor Taraji. I was awestruck to see the man who regaled me with Mr India and had me rushing to see Bandit Queen at the Film Festival (as the talk was that it was an uncensored version).

Now I am sure by now  Shekar Kapur has been saffronised by the anti- Kangana lobby for this FTII posting. In TamilNadu, Periyar Statues get doused in saffron paint and likewise the mainstream media and the Bollywood press would have draped Shekar Kapur in saffron and made him to be another Yogi Adityanath.

Why so?  Plenty. He put out a tweet on suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput - “I knew the pain you were going through. I knew the story of the people that let you down so bad that you would weep on my shoulder. I wish I was around the last 6 months. I wish you had reached out to me. What happened to you was their Karma. Not yours. #SushantSinghRajput,” He told Rahman that the fault in not getting big Bollywood films was because he got the Oscars. He praised Kangana for her acting talent. He pointed out to director R Balki ,who felt that Alia Bhatt and Ranvir Kapoor were the best actors, that “Best actors today are coming from theatre. There’s new found respect for them. And confidence. I’ve worked with Naseer, Shabana,Satish Kaushik, Seema Biswas and entire cast of Bandit Queen, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Heath Ledger Daniel Craig Eddy Redmayne. All are from theatre,”. Kapur was to direct Paani with Sushant and produced by Aditya Chopra and the project fell through as Chopra told the NCB that it was creative differences.

The difference was about Sushant playing the lead. About the casting decision of a Director he  tweeted. "Elizabeth was my first Hollywood film. I had noticed an unknown girl called Cate Blanchett who I wanted to play Elizabeth. My agent said Studio wanted a star and if I kept insisting on an unknown actor, they will replace me. I said i had to go with my heart. The rest is history,"  Blanchett got global fame for portraying Elizabeth I in the  Hollywood drama, for which she won the BAFTA Award as Best Actress and earned her first Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category.

Now the opinion unbecoming of a Bollywood Director - Shekhar declared on Twitter, “Theatres are not going to open for atleast a year. So all hype around first weeks business of 100+ crores is dead. So the theatrical Star System is dead.” He added, “Stars will have to go to existing OTT platform or stream films themselves through their own apps. Technology is quite simple.” As the controversy was raging he had deposed before the NCB , He wrote on Twitter, “Dear Sushant, there was so much more you had to offer. Perhaps the world was not up to your beliefs.. you should not have gone like this ...but then you were an old wise soul in a restless young body. Often the heavens cannot handle that ..”

 Shobaa De in The Week wrote as the Sushant Singh suicide saga was unfolding – “Regardless of how this saga pans out, it is great to know that the 74-year-old Kapur continues to be combative—as he can well afford to be. With a net worth estimated at $25 million, he is in an enviable position to say and do as he please. He is also one of the few people in Bollywood to take a stand when required, as he famously did when a “trilogy” of his superhit directorial venture, Mr India, was grandly announced without informing him. He asked an important and very valid question: “Where is the director’s ownership on material he has created?” This did not go down well with the community, with people like Javed Akhtar questioning his stand”. 

We will have wait and see how he survives the spears that would be send hurling towards him . Till then- Mugambo Khush hua.

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