Mahesh Bhatt on filmmaking 101: ‘When you make movies that are close to living wounds, then they are relevant' - Exclusive

The only thing constant in this ever-evolving universe is ‘change.’ Especially in the field of storytelling and filmmaking, it is hard to hold on to the audience, who are spoiled with choices and have an attention span of a hummingbird. Finding a core story, finding relevance in such times, is not an easy task. However, if you look at the world through the lens of a filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt, then “relevance comes from your lived life.”

Mahesh Bhatt believes cinema is more than an escape for the audience

While speaking to us exclusively, he said, “You see, the world exists between the three of us right now (Mahesh Bhatt, director, Suhrita Das, and the journalist). The world is held right now between three of us. It comes from our age, our background, and the tasks that we do.”


Then citing an example of his upcoming film, ‘Tu Meri Poori Kahani,’ Mahesh Bhatt said, “I think the story that Suhrita plucked was her own lived life. When you translate your lived life into a sheer process, something is directly into the voice of a fictional narrative, then it has the throb and a beat of life which connects instantly with people.”

He continued, “Because ‘human beings are pathetically similar.’ A story cannot be just an escapist affair; people also come to the movies to find the solutions to he problems they are battling with. They want to see themselves also reflected on the screen.”

“At times, they want to see Batman, a larger-than-life hero/heroine, but they also want to see how they empathise with the hero or heroine. They want to see how they want to cope with a particular challenge. That’s when, if the way a character deals with a problem has relevance to his or her life, then it has a multiplying effect,” he added.

Low-budget movies with big potential

He further explained the concept with a few more examples and said, “When I made ‘Arth,’ it was relevant at that time. Movies, for example, ‘Daddy,’ there was a problem of alcoholism that Anand used to battle with. ‘Zakhm’ had a problem with the nation’s discourse of the conflict of the plural nature of society and the inevitability of the conflict. Whenever you make movies that are very close to your breath, to your living wounds, then they are relevant.”

“I think especially films of this kind, which have got newcomers kind of low budget, cannot but be relevant, apart from the great music and all that, because we don’t have time and the sheen and gloss to market,” concluded the filmmaker, shedding light that all it needs is the right story to struck the right chord with the audience.