Indraneil and Rituparno in Arekti Premer Galpo

Arekti Premer Galpo has won the Best Film award at New York’s I View Festival. What does this mean for you and the film?

Great! Arekti Premer Galpo (Just Another Love Story) had two screenings at the festival and was the Centre Piece of the festival. Rituparno (Ghosh) couldn’t make it because of an eye infection. Raima (Sen, who plays Indraneil Sengupta’s wife in the film) was there with me. We got a red carpet before the screening. But it’s unfortunate that I wasn’t present when the award was given. I had to come back because there were no flight tickets available due to the Commonwealth Games and my next film (Rang Milanti) was scheduled to roll from September 28. But I was present during the screening on the 24th.

In India, nobody discusses homosexuality openly. It’s still a very closed-door topic. But the western audience has overcome all that. A section of the audience consisted of members of a LGBT group too. See, there have been a lot of films on homosexuals before but nobody has ever made a film about their emotional journey. I have focussed on their psychological aspects and so people have been moved. Not just the homosexuals but people in general were moved. I have tracked the emotional journey of two characters who are homosexuals in my film. And I have gelled the religious and social consequences too. When they saw that even religion supports the third gender, they were moved. There’s a religious reference in the film. The presence of the third gender was there since the time of the Ramayana. That today we are getting it legitimised is a different issue, but they have always existed.

Which other films were in competition?

The other significant films were Pankh, Onir’s I Am and a couple of films from Pakistan. But the response to Just Another Love Story was amazing. After the screening, the audience, which was a mix of Pakistanis, New Yorkers and NRIs, were very emotional. I found their reactions very genuine. After they stepped out of Big Cinemas, where the film was screened, they stood outside the hall for two hours discussing the film. A huge audience had watched the film passionately.

Kaushik with filmmaker Mira Nair at the I View festival

Tell us a little more about Arekti Premer Galpo...

Well, it’s just another love story (laughs), like any love story we see or have seen already. The agony, the emotional journey remains the same as in a man-woman relationship. Please don’t watch the film with a different mindset. I want to stress the fact that it’s just another love story. Everyone has performed so well in the film. It is also about Chapal Rani, a famous theatre artiste who used to play women characters on stage. Arekti Premer Galpo is based on his life and Chapalbabu (Chapal Bhaduri) has acted in the film too. Rituparno plays a filmmaker who is making a documentary on Chapalbabu. Indraneil is a cinematographer and they are partners in the film. How they explore their relationship while making the documentary is a very important angle.

How did the western audience react to a man cross-dressed as a woman?

Oh, cross-dressing has existed since time immemorial. Don’t our gods wear gold from head to toe? I am talking about the male gods here! Then why do we raise eyebrows when Rituparno wears earrings? Queerism has existed since the Ramayana. They have really appreciated that. The response has been overwhelming. Nobody has spoken in the negative about the film. Onir and Mira Nair couldn’t watch the film but they said that they have heard a lot and would definitely watch it.

See, the western audiences are exposed to such subjects on screen and so there’s no preliminary shock. But I am a little worried about how the Calcutta audience will react to the film when it releases in December. They may feel ‘oh god! why have they done this?’. But the audience in New York could soak in the subject from the first frame. They could relate to the emotional travel and the values of the characters. A Pakistani reporter very aptly told me after the screening that he forgot after 10 minutes of watching the film whether it was a gay love story or not. The story becomes all-pervasive. For them, the cross-dressing never figured in any of their discussions. For them, this was a gay love story and the intricacies of the relationship in an Indian context.

How apprehensive are you about the reaction here?

It’s a new concept for the audience here. I have taken the concept of cross-dressing to a different level altogether. When Rituparno plays a woman in the film he dresses up totally like a woman. That bit is very strong. But again, at times I’m not much worried because Calcuttans are pretty much familiar with Rituparno Ghosh and his way of dressing. I am more keen to know how the audience in Banglore and Mumbai will react to the film. I think when people know about the awards the film gets from various festivals, they will be curious to watch it.

Did you make this film keeping the festival audience in mind?

Mostly. Not that I tailor-made it for the festivals, but I was sure that this film wouldn’t run in the villages. I didn’t even try for that. I had made a telefilm Ushnotar Jonno in 2002, it’s a take-off from that. Arekti Premer Galpo will be screened at the London Film Festival in October at the Waterman Theatre. It was screened at Berlin Panorama too. That’s why the producer (Tapan Biswas of Cinemawalla) has pushed back its release to December, because we want to screen it at a couple of other festivals too. But not the LGBT festivals because we are not promoting the film as a LGBT film, the openness would be lost then.