Director Neeraj Ghaywan on the movie bagging Oscar nomination
He wants a respite, as for many days he has been sleeping three hours a day. So when your second film in 10 years also wins an Oscar nomination on the eve of the Indian theatrical release, things do get frenzied. Graciously, however, Neeraj Ghaywan, director of Homebound, decides to eke out 15 minutes for an exclusive conversation.
Excerpts from the interview:
Congratulations on the Oscar achievement, and incidentally, I was on the Jury.
Thank you so much! It’s been just a few days and I am still in disbelief. We are also eager to see how Indian audience react to the film.
Though you did short films and series in the interim, why did it take 10 years to make your second feature film after Masaan?
I have been trying to answer that question myself! I guess the subject must make me want to get out of bed each day. No, I am not aspiring for greatness. I travelled around the country and was even planning a film on farmer suicides and another film that was a biopic. I made shorts and did work on OTT. But this film did the trick.
You are from the Dalit community yourself. I am also told you are a Maharashtrian. What were the plus-es and problems you encountered as a Dalit?
Yes, but my Marathi is terrible—from childhood my father settled in Hyderabad. He was a technical officer with the government and would ride a cycle to work. My mother would stitch clothes to augment our income. My sisters and I went to Kendriya Vidhyalaya schools and our house would have the roof tiles falling just as shown in the film! Even the biryani element in the film had a base: I am very fond of the dish and I remember jumping over our roofs to enter a neighbour’s house on Eid to eat some, thinking that everyone must have gone for namaaz. But I was caught and the lady told me that they would have shared it if I had just asked her instead!
We did face several hardships and even avoided writing that we were Dalits in our application forms, just as we see in Homebound. And one of my sisters shares the name of my lead character’s sister—Vaishali.
So, what is your message with Homebound?
The hardcore message is showing humanity and having empathy, not disdain, for people who are different in the way they talk, walk or look from you and have different value systems. We must at least accept their ideologies, even if we do not agree with them.
The base was a Basharat Peer-written news item in the New York Times. How did that transform into a film like this?
That is just the last part of my film. The story was built around it. As Basharat had written about something that had happened, both of us actually visited the real people involved and it was heartbreaking to hear their stories. Also, the optimistic end has not happened with them.
So how and when did the film bug strike you?
My sisters and I would often watch films on Doordarshan in the afternoons, mostly arthouse cinema. Hindustan Times had then started a ‘dotcom’ division and I joined the marketing team. I also enrolled in a course that specialized in film appreciation. I joined a portal called passionforcinema.com, which was a group of cinephiles and independent filmmakers, where we would watch World Cinema, and I wrote some reviews. That’s where I first met Anurag Kashyap. He suggested that I come on board as assistant in Gangs of Wasseypur.
How similar and how different would you say your style is from him?
I prep a lot and like to research my films. He is a genius and is spontaneous. Our films’ milieus tend to be similar but our narratives are different.
You have this penchant for arthouse cinema and realism. Would you do a mainstream commercial film at any point?
Honestly speaking, I would like to do that too. While growing up, I watched a Govind Nihalani as much as a Nadiya Ke Paar and I would love amalgamating the commercial form into a story. Even with Homebound, if it resonated with audience at Cannes, I have tried a balance so that it works here as well. If my movie is not seen by our audience, what’s the point of making it? I am aware the importance of the fact that my producer’s hard-earned money must come back. That is also why I need known faces as my lead characters, like Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor.
How did Martin Scorsese come into your film as Executive Producer?
Mélita Toscan du Plantier, the producer of Masaan, introduced me to him. Martin very gracefully got involved—with his feedback on the script and also in the three rounds of the edit. He did it all selflessly, and that’s why I feel he is the biggest filmmaker in the world.
Ishaan has mentioned that you have a ‘Code 360’ on sets—a unique initiative.
Yes, I call it that, and it is mentioned on the actors’ call-sheets. When emotionally intense scenes are being filmed, the right tone must be maintained on sets, so that the actors are not disturbed and their mood is intact. Like the clapper boy will do his job softly and actors’ managers are not allowed on sets. I call it Code 360. Other filmmakers must also be following similar protocols.
Ishaan also said that you use music in a big way.
Yes, I play music all the time on sets, selecting specific songs with lyrics to put my actors in the right mood. I am a hardcore music lover and prefer older songs, like those of R.D. Burman.
Last but not least: You said you need stars, but why did you opt for Janhvi Kapoor in particular?
I have seen her utmost dedication. She was supposed to do the biopic I was planning. For this film, I gave her the book The Annihilation of Caste by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and she not only read it but did some research on her own and actually made notes. She was okay with whatever costumes I gave her and insisted that she will have zero make-up.
