Indian filmmaker Anubhav Sinha: 'Assi was meant to be disturbing'

Stationed at a city hotel filmmaker Anubhav Sinha is busy recording long media interactions about his latest film Assi If one didnrsquot know better the directorrsquos enthusiasm would give the impression the film is about to release But the Taapsee Pannustarrer released two months ago and began its streaming run last week For Sinha though it feels like a rereleaseldquoThe film dropped on Zee5 on Thursday night April 17 Friday was a little quiet So I thought maybe OTT release is like this But Friday night onwards it became viral mdash whether it was Instagram Reels or Whatsapps or DMs from filmmakers friends bichhde hue dost Mathura aur Jaipur se So for me itrsquos feeling like a rereleaserdquo he smilesA still from Assi featuring Pannu and Kani KusrutiStill two months is a long time for a maker to observe the reactions that a film received during its theatrical run agrees Sinha ldquoLargely things that are said about the film are in appreciation There are a slim percentage of people who find Kumudrsquos Mishra character Kartik to be an outsider to the story But thatrsquos all that I have heard as a critique The other observation is that the film is very disturbing which it was intended to berdquo he saysIt feels the right time to register a feedback that one felt while watching the movie that works both as an investigation and an introspection centred around the rape of a school teacher played by Kani Kusruti in the capital The feminist intent notwithstanding the execution in parts feel preachy we share with Sinha The director replies ldquoI respect this observation and if I looked at the film from that viewpoint and itrsquos not absolutely unfoundedrdquoSinha consistently has been among the voices in the industry who remain open to dialogue and dissent So we ask him how he views Pannursquos widelydiscussed Instagram post before Assirsquos release where she appealed to the audience to be louder in their support for films that arenrsquot cut from the cloth of mainstream ldquoYou deserve good cinema only when you value itrdquo reads a sentence from her post Doesnrsquot it put an unfair amount of responsibility on the audience which is an outsider to the rooms that decide what gets made in the industryldquoThe responsibility of the audience is directly proportional to the expectation of the audience So Tapsee is probably coming from a place where she very regularly hears that good cinema is not made Even though I donrsquot agree much with this because how do I assume my cinema is good People will decide that But Tapsee was probably trying to talk about real cinema real stories So if the audience has expectations and demands from cinema then it becomes your responsibility as well to support it because making such films is an unpopular choice People have no idea what it takes to get these films off the groundrdquo he saysBut another argument arises that the audience merely reacts to the visual assets of a film or to a star if itrsquos a starfronted feature If a filmmaker fails to ignite excitement among the viewers the onus shouldnrsquot fall on them to still pay to watch a film howsoever wellintentioned it is Sinha agrees that the responsibility lies more on the industry to churn out diverse stories on a regular basis even if it fails at times in an attempt to reach out to the audience and eventually condition it to give a chance to ldquounpopular filmsrdquo How does one restore the balance that an Assi and Lapataa Ladies can coexist with a Dhurandhar and a Pathaan 2023 ldquoYes the balance has become very lopsided But the fact that you said Assi and Dhurandhar in the same breath is good enough Around 13 lakh people went to see Assi in the theatres If I draw an analogy 40ndash50 thousand people sit in a stadium to watch a match Now three crore people went to Dhurandhar but its stakes and ambition were different Assirsquos ambition was not that three crore people should go to see merdquo he arguesBut Sinha is a producer as well and the commercial ambition of Assi will have a number attached to it ldquoIt should have done much better than what it did for it to fall into that success category But thatrsquos one of the later metrics that I look at In the real world it seems that the math of a film is very urgent But it takes a backseat not only for the filmmaker but for the whole team including the stars and the studio Years later it doesnrsquot matter how much money did Satya 1998 Chandni 1989 or Lamhe 1991 make On an urgent basis Lamhe was a flop But today it is a hitrdquoWhat remain urgent are Sinharsquos stories So we mention our recent conversation with filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt who said that stories on screen are being weaponised to push people away from each otherldquoAs an audience you can choose one story over the other but all of them have the right to exist The Kerala Story 2023 has a right to exist and so does The Kashmir Files 2022rdquo Sinha says So where does an artistersquos responsibility lie ldquoArtistes will make their own choices and then history will place them on shelves Itrsquos not my job to place another artiste on a shelf or myself on another shelf We are making films and today there is a kneejerk response Twenty years later when a smart girl writes a massive article about what happened in this era in India we will all be judged much later If you are fortunate you will be judged otherwise you will most likely be ignored by historyrdquo