From the Heart

“Sikandar” releases in two weeks. There’s very little publicity and quite a lot of apprehension. It’s the first feature film I’ve ever been a part of and it’s the first acting gig I’ve done in India. Needless to say the personal stake I have in the film is quite substantial. But I feel that there is something greater on the line - the soul of Indian Cinema. I know that’s a grandiose statement to make, but I feel that from my limited though perspicacious perspective, cinema and the culture of cinema teeters on a edge of a precipice, one that yawns deep and bottomless.

There shall always be a need in a country like ours, where the average living conditions are so poor and the lack of infrastructure and the ambition to become a world power while ignoring the very real issues that plague the nation abound, for popcorn, “feel good” movies. Just because I have not enjoyed the majority of the films that have released recently, and from Hollywood too, before anyone can claim that I’m biased towards the West, doesn’t mean I don’t understand the hold they have over the mass consciousness.

What I’m concerned about, is that attitude of the producers and the distributors and the media towards films that aren’t packed tight with glistening, perfect bodies, or stunning women (the kind only India can make) gyrating to catchy music, et all. Someone (I’m sadly learning the art of vagary) said “Sikandar” that it would be easy to market the film had there been a major star in the cast. Really? That’s the reason you can’t market the film, there’s no super-stars involved in it?

Where does this attitude come from? It’s one thing to refuse to produce a quirky film, or one that has no “starpower”. That’s a legitimate stand to make. Making films is after-all a business, and a business requires returns and profit to be viable. Fine. But after producing the movie, after investing in it, endorsing it, to refuse to do absolutely everything possible to ensure that people at least know about the film and consequently, go to check it out, is unforgivable.
Then there’s the people that ask me why I haven’t opted for a conventional launch vehicle, rather than do a small (but substantial) role in a film like “Sikandar”. Is a launch the only way for an actor to get noticed? Does being launched guarantee your becoming a superstar, or even mildly successful? Does being launched mean you can even carry a role? And I’m not one of those people that pretends to support independent cinema while I’m getting work in it, only to run away and dance in a Yash Raj film the minute they notice me. I believe in what I do, and where I work. I believe in “Sikandar”, I believed when I read the script that this was a special film written by a unique mind, with a setting and a premise that was as far from the popular norm as possible.

Now what we need is for people to go see the film. Love it, hate it, be indifferent to it, but watch it. Talk about it, because I guarantee it’ll worm its way into your conversations long after the credits roll. That’s how you market such a film, you highlight it’s heart, it’s desire to inform, it’s shining a spotlight on the plight of children in strife-torn regions. You don’t need Aamir Khan or a Shah Rukh Khan or any other super-luminary to tell people to go see a film that’s about people like them, that’s about children like theirs. We have an engaging story, a suspenseful and thrilling story, we have a group of actors who tried hard to not only act but inhabit their characters. We have Kashmir like you’ve never seen it before.

I don’t know how many people read my blog, really. I’m grateful anyone does. But don’t read it if you aren’t going to see the film. Because the person that can enjoy my writing will enjoy the film. The person that doesn’t enjoy my writing, will enjoy the film too.

We need you. But in a way, you need us too. You need people like us, to show you the other side of the coin, the tarnished, notched side. The side that mirrors your situations, your turmoil, your fears. One cannot subsist on popcorn alone.