Anurag Basu

Needless to say, you must be feeling on top of the world after Barfi’s success at the box office and nomination at the Oscar.

Only one film had to be chosen for the Oscar nominations and it happened to be ours. Several people were perturbed about Barfi being the official entry. But the bigger concern is that about 1,000 odd films are made in India annually but Barfi! had to fight it with just 19 others. The competition would have been good had there been many other films. I feel this system is flawed. Keeping in mind that our country has so many small film industries such as Tollywood, Ollywood, Kollywood etc., there should have been at least three to four nominations from India.

So, how are you looking forward to the big day?

There’s a long way to go for the Oscars. I think it’s a very media-hyped event. Barfi! is India’s official entry, but the butterflies in my stomach will start fluttering once it gets selected in the next round.

Given a chance, would you like to make certain changes to Barfi!?

I will keep it exactly the way it is. The way critics gave a standing ovation to the film at the Busan film festival and the kind of reception it has received in other places abroad, I don’t think any changes are required because these are the kind of critics who would be present in the jury of the Academy Awards as well. The articles of international film writers are also positive. Certain people have pointed out the length, but I don’t consider it as a problem.

A few scenes from foreign movies juxtaposed with those of Barfi! have flooded the Internet, which clearly shows the latter’s ‘source of inspiration’.

It is the immaturity of Indian critics and also the people who are illiterate about world cinema. To pay homage to Nargis Dutt and Raj Kapoor we would show Raj Kapoor with an umbrella and Nargis Dutt in the rain. To pay homage to Gabbar Singh, we would instantly do a ‘Kitne aadmi the?’. Similarly, I have taken iconic moments and put them in the film. One cannot even think of copying them because the moment you see them, you know where it has been taken from. The moment you see the scenes you know there’s Buster Keaton, there’s Singin’ in the Rain and many other classics. Everybody else in the world is appreciating the film but we are calling it a copy. It is homage. It’s the media that is the copycat. No one is going deep into the matter but just repeating somebody’s conjecture.

But how can a viewer distinguish between what’s a homage and what’s a copy?

Let’s take the scene where Barfi! comes to Shruti’s home and finds her boyfriend. I would say this scene has been there in hundreds of movies before. Would you call it a copy? One particular scene cannot be the whole crux of the film. Media selectively writes a thing that suits them. Even Artist’, (which won the Academy Award for the best film) has several scenes from yesteryear movies and the story is very much like Singin’ in the Rain. ‘Artist India mein banti na, yahan ke critics utar dete uski. Oscar tak jaati bhi nahi!’ (Had Artist been made in India, media would have criticised. Forget about winning an Oscar, it would not even be nominated.)

In your movies we see different subjects every time but somehow they are connected to life and love. So, what’s your philosophy about three things: love, life and cinema

It keeps changing with time. I don’t have a consistent definition of my film-making philosophy. It was different in Gangster, different Life in a Metro and today its different in Barfi. You might get to see something completely different in my next.

How do you find Odisha?

I spent my early years in Rourkela. Rangabati was one of my favourite songs, back then. I grew up in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), which is just a few hundred kilometers away from the Odisha border. Again, Puri is like second home to any Bengali. I have been to Sambalpur and Kendrapara also. Unfortunately, I had fewer chances to visit Bhubaneswar. I also believe that Bengali cuisine finds its roots in Odisha.

What would be Anurag Basu’s advice to young filmmakers?

The entertainment industry is ever expanding and with that new career opportunities are coming up. But this industry is ruled by the iconic figures like the hero but one doesn’t have to be a performer to make it to this industry. Behind this one iconic figure, there are hundreds of people who are slogging out day and night. Also, your degrees don’t count, experience does. So, for the kids who want to be part of the industry, it’s very tough. They should start early, do theatres, make short films, write scripts etc.