After giving us the critically acclaimed Article 370 last year, director Aditya Suhas Jambhale returns to Kashmir with Baramulla. Set to premiere on Netflix on November 7, Baramulla — front-lined by Manav Kaul — focuses on both literal and metaphorical horror, with more than a dash of the supernatural. t2 caught up with the director who promises “something new and unexplored” with his latest project.
What was the genesis of Baramulla?
I started shooting Baramulla much before Article 370. Aditya (Dhar, writer and producer) came up with the idea: ‘Can we make something in the horror genre in Kashmir?’ I wanted to do something in the horror genre which was not limited to just the traditional definition of it. I didn’t want to follow the same pattern or palette which has been done for so many years. I also wanted to show Kashmir in a different light and change the lens of how the audience has been perceiving it for so long on screen. One thing led to another and we took three months to articulate the idea and then started building the script around it.
How much has the socio-political situation in Kashmir and the region’s atmospherics contributed to Baramulla?
The socio-political or cultural fabric of any place reflects in the story you are trying to tell, and this is especially true in the case of Kashmir, more so when it comes to its background of conflict.
But the idea of Baramulla was not to get into the politics of the region. Rather, we wanted to explore the story of our film through emotions and situations of its locals. We wanted to present this film through the stories that are grounded in that region. For example, a lot of films have been based on the armed forces as a whole, but very few have focused on individual stories of the men in uniform. In Baramulla, we look at things from the point of view of DSP Ridwaan Sayyed (played by Manav Kaul). Nobody really knows what kind of psyche and what kind of conflict and emotions these cops go through, living as they do in Kashmir. At the same time, they have a duty that they are obligated to do and a certain level of loyalty they have promised to uphold, and in many cases, are 100 per cent hellbent on delivering. A part of this film explores that as well as their equations with their families and their interactions with the local residents.
Director Aditya Suhas Jambhale
What was it like making Baramulla and Article 370 back to back in the same geographical terrain but explore different territories and genres? Did making the experience of one contribute to the other?
It did definitely help. I was born and brought up in Goa. It was important for me to do justice to the locations, characters and the plot of a place I didn’t know much of before I made these films. But after a point, I pretty much knew what were the positives and negatives one has to deal with if one is shooting in Kashmir, what the challenges in the real sense are.... I had researched so much that I was quite happy and proud of the fact that I knew much more about the region than the rest of my crew. That really helped boost my confidence. What I constantly had to keep in mind, and which was a big challenge, is that there shouldn’t be anything that looked similar in the two films. The lines were so thin that there was always the risk that we could almost end up making something similar.
The good thing is that on paper, the two films were very different. Article 370 was not only about the situation in Kashmir, it also focused on the politics in Delhi. But Baramulla is more focused on the valley — it explores the myths around it and it looks at the supernatural elements that may or may not exist within it.
Baramulla is the toughest film I have made so far. We shot it in -18 degrees in Kashmir in only 23 days, which is quite a difficult feat. To shoot it without any green screen or any VFX whatsoever was an adamant choice that my DoP (director of photography, Arnold Fernandes) and I had taken. Shooting Article 370 was way easier than Baramulla.
Creatively, our industry is going through a time where they want to play it safe, no matter what the genre. But for me, playing it safe with Baramulla was never an option. I wanted to shake up things and I believe the audience will appreciate that. Trying to guess what the audience wants and aiming to play safe, I think, is the worst formula.
You have two National Awards to your credit. How much do they play a part in giving weightage to your argument when you don’t want to play it safe and do something new and different?
The National Awards have definitely brought in credibility to my name. But for a large section of the industry, success means only box office. You may want to make things in only the way you want to, but there are so many things to also take into account. The point is that things are not completely dependent on the capability of the director or how he has creatively or critically proven himself in the past. It is a never-ending battle for a filmmaker till the point you become so powerful that you can be a Sandeep (Reddy) Vanga who says things as he wants to and makes the films he wants to and a large section of the audience is ready to hear it and watch it. Till the point you become that big, resistance is always going to be there. The only way out is to keep fighting because you are doing it for the betterment of your film. It is not a case of ego or personal triumph or anything.
Manav Kaul, who plays your protagonist, spent a part of his childhood in Baramulla. What did he bring to the film and to the part that lent it more authenticity?
I was fortunate enough to get an actor who understood what I was trying to do with this film. Manav comes from a theatre background and is a writer himself. He is a good actor, no doubt, but he is also one of the smartest actors we have. He would do so less and yet bring in so much to a scene. He has played a lot of diverse parts, but I wanted to do something new with him, which is action. He plays a cop who needed to be rugged. The character is combat trained. I wanted him to grow a beard and look bulky. He trained for three months to look the part. He was fully committed.
Manav always comes up with different options of how to do a scene and because he was aware of the mise en scene, I was happy to try out everything. Having said that, the director and the writer in Manav never interfered with the actor in him. The fact that he isn’t insecure as an actor was a big bonus for us. Most actors in this industry are insecure... they get worried about two lines of their dialogue being cut, even if it is being done to make a scene better. Manav is not like that. He would never even check the monitor on set. I like the kind of old-school filmmaking he brings in... the idea that an actor needs to trust the director implicitly and forget things like whether you are looking good or not, how much footage you have or don’t have....
Is there a reference film/series in this genre that comes closest to what you have tried to achieve in Baramulla?
I wanted to bring in the feeling of dread which I had while watching The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor (both by Mike Flanagan). I like horror that is not in your face, but the kind that plays with one’s feeling of dread. Once you show the ghost, it is all over... the fear is gone.
In horror — and I am not talking about horror comedy — the scares lie in knowing that the ghost exists but you don’t know the logic behind its existence. That makes you internalise the ghost and that is tricky because then it starts playing with your weakness and your vulnerability. That is when the scares truly kick in.