This story is from October 27, 2011

Q's Gandu leaked online

TNN / Updated: Jan 11, 2017, 18:47 IST

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The filmmaker reacts to the news of ��Gandu�� surfacing online; says it shows how redundant censorship laws in the country are

Just after ��Gandu�� raised a storm at the London Film Festival comes the news that the film has been leaked online. Director Q, who is still in Sri Lanka after having wrapped the filming of his adaptation of Tagore��s Tasher Desh starring Rii, Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Imaad Shah, Tinu Verghese and Anubrata Basu, says this leak only proves how redundant censorship laws now are.
Says Q, ��Two days back, I found that a preview copy had got leaked online. It��s a miracle that we have been able to contain the leak till now despite people in India wanting to watch it for so long. We are lucky that our fans are mature and hadn��t uploaded it earlier. Legally, we can��t do a thing about this leak. We have tried our best to conform to rules even while knowing that they are so draconian. We have faced many roadblocks while screening this movie in India but as responsible producers, we have not broken any laws. Now that the movie is available online, I only hope that it doesn��t become just another film that can be downloaded and watched. One has to keep the idea of protest alive.��
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So, what��s the difference between this leak and the controversial one from ��Chatrak��? ��In my case, it is the question of a film which people have been waiting for. In ��Chatrak��, it is one single sex scene that had a Bengali girl and boy doing it. If we had really wanted to leak ��Gandu�� online to create a hype, we would have done it long back. The only similarity between the two online leaks is that they make us realize that we are living in digital times where censorship just doesn��t make any sense.�� That incidentally is also what Q is exploring in his adaptation of ��TD�� that��s being co-produced by Anurag Kashyap and has Susheela Raman lending her voice to one of the tracks.

Q forces people to think
Neel and Miti Adhikari are working with Steve Chandra Salave of Asian Dub Foundation to do the ��Bandh bhenge dao�� song for the movie. Much like the movie, this song too questions the reason for having norms. While ��Gandu�� is edgy, ��TD�� is a romantic film. Tagore was highlighting a metaphor for universal truth that was related to individual liberation. That concept of liberation in the original text is a feminist and sexual one. I am interpreting it in a contemporary world which has the loss of innocence and is marked by an identity crisis. I have retained the original Tagore fantasy even while bringing in a very raw approach towards the treatment,�� says Q.

Another interesting aspect of his adaptation is the strong same-sex portrayal in ��TD��. ��I have elaborated on the concept of romance without relationships. In contrast to ��TD��, ��Gandu�� never had any overt homosexuality. I never expect every member of the audience to react similarly. Be it ��Gandu�� or ��TD��, I am making movies that force people to think a little. I work with a form that has elements of pop culture in it. That��s why I get into a space which documentary and arthouse moviemakers might not tread. But for me, accessing these grey areas of life is not a problem. I don��t want to be branded by any definitions. I don��t see things as being bold or carefree. Such definitions are limiting. The idea of an artiste is to stretch the boundaries of the mind. The word ��bold�� is a redundant term in my dictionary. Neither do I force any scenes in my movie in order to attract attention nor do I delete anything thinking of how people will react. If people are thinking that post-��Gandu��, I will be giving a shocking title for my adaptation of Tagore, they are mistaken. I don��t want to give a shocking title because I have to maintain any image.��
Speaking about the portrayal of sexuality in Indian cinema, Q says we have not come anywhere close to the way the great masters in the West have been dealing with this issue. ��Sexuality is not just about showing liplocks. ��Utsav�� dealt with a narrative that has sexuality embedded in it. ��English, August�� explored sexuality in a contemporary culture. ��Herbert�� too touched upon the topic,�� he says, adding, ��I like the way Shyamal Karmakar explored the issue in a documentary titled ��I Am The Very Beautiful��. But the exploration of sexuality in contemporary Indian cinema comes nowhere close to the kind of work being done by pioneers of world cinema.��

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