Talking about the JNU row, DU alumnus Manoj Bajpayee says that there is nothing new about students and the government locking horns. Homosexuals are much more accepted today in India: Manoj Bajpayee You went to JNU a few days back to screen your film, right in the midst of the nationalism/tolerance debate. What did you bring back from the visit ' the impressions, the questions? No matter how aggressively you agree or disagree with each other, you should learn to co-exist with each other. I have seen this when I was studying at DU; this is the culture I have seen when I was studying, and this is the culture which should be in the country too. This is what I have seen that day as well. They were very aggressive about their own point of view about the film, but when we threw our arguments back, they immediately agreed with them. There have always been very open-minded arguments and debates happening at JNU, and this is what is so beautiful about it.
What is happening now, with the JNU union and the government being at loggerheads ' I think we are all rushing into things. Let everything take its own course, instead of being confrontational. Solve it amicably and peacefully. The confrontation has never paid any kind of dividend to anybody. I am also requesting the government to listen to them, to be patient with them because these students are from a middle-class background and their aspirations are very middle-class in nature.
You are a DU passout sympathetic to the JNU cause ' but DU itself is almost silent on the JNU episode. See, JNU is in the centre of a conflict, so that's why JNU is in the news. Tomorrow, some other university will be in the news, but the students and the government will always be at loggerheads with each other! History says that. For me, this is not something that is new, because the youth has its own expectations from the government of the day, and the government has its own way of operating. Somehow, each government that has ruled since independence has been at loggerheads with students at some point or the other. I don't find the current stand-off surprising.
Did you participate in any such student activities in your own college days? No, I didn't. But in my childhood, I have seen the Emergency. I have seen my cousins sacrificing their college life and career, and I have seen them being arrested and jumping into political affairs. So, for me, everything is playing out again and I hope something great is going to come out of it.
You're from DU, and you're showing a film set in AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) in JNU. How different are the vibes on each campus? Mahaul toh Aligarh ka ho, BHU (Banaras Hindu University) ka ho, ya JNU ka ho, 19-20 ka fark hota hai. Almost jab bhi university ek campus ho jati hai toh mahaul ek hi rehta hai ' debates, discussions, aggressive debates and aggressive discussions, so it's always electrified. But this what the youth will do.
But the youth at AMU didn't really do too much in terms of any of this, from the story of 'Aligarh'. Nahin kiya tha. That is why the film is what it is. That is why professor Siras' death became a topic to make a film on ' because he was a man who was completely left alone to fight his own battle.
So 'har jagah' mahaul wo nahin hota hai, right? ' I don't know whether professor Siras' kind of people will be supported by any other university or not, and that is why Aligarh becomes such an important film, just to make people understand that no battle is a battle of an individual. Professor Siras fought a battle of 'Right to privacy,' which concerns all of us. It's not only about homosexuals. It concerns each and every one of us.
WATCH: Aligarh Official Trailer with English Subtitle | Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao
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