Abhishek Kapoor: This country hasn't changed much in the last 20 years

Abhishek Kapoor had to literally walk through fire to see his tragic love story, Kedarnath, through. For starters, it couldn’t release in Uttarakhand, where it is based. Also, the film, made against the backdrop of the 2013 floods in the pilgrim state, almost drowned under financial hurdles (not of his making). But hats off to the filmmaker who doggedly brought his labour of love to fruition and emerged victorious.

Gattu, as he is popularly known, reveals his state of mind today and hopes to move forward with those fresh scripts that he has been giving finishing touches to.

Now that Kedarnath has released, how are you feeling?

I feel good. This one was quite a tough one to make. However, I’m happy that people are liking it. So, it feels great (smiles).

It’s a downer that it couldn’t release in Uttarakhand.

Yes, it is. I wish they would hear the voice of the rest of the people who are watching Kedarnath in theatres and enjoying it. There’s nothing offensive in the film. The censor board (Central Board of Film Certification) has gone through it with a microscope. They have done their job. There is nothing for anyone to fear it or get offended by it. Sometimes, you can’t win them all.

It hasn’t happened to you in the past.

It has never happened to me.

You had the honour of introducing Sara Ali Khan. She got a lot of praise for her performance.

Yes, Sara is quite a spark. She’s got a great personality, and she brings that to her part. There is a lot of her in her character (Mukku/Mandakini) that has gelled really well.

Did you revisit and analyse your movie post its release?

I’m happy with the way it’s gone. I made the movie I wanted to make it. As a filmmaker, you evolve. If you see any of my films, you’ll realise that I don’t repeat myself. They are not in the same world, they have non-identical characters who are from diverse strata.

This one (Kedarnath) is a different animal and it’s made for the people. And the kind of stories and problems we touch upon are deeply Indian. This country hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years. We’re still dealing with the same old issues that exist even today.

Is that why a part of the movie has a slightly retro feel? Was that deliberate?

Yes, it’s deliberate. Every time, you can’t make a film to please the critics.

It’s important to know your craft and have enough control over it. But it should not come in your way, with who you’re talking to. If you’re addressing certain issues, there should be clear communication for whom you are making a movie. I don’t think filmmakers should get confused about their target audience.

This movie is made for the people at large because I really believe that this is a story for the present day. We’ve never been more divided due to our communities than we are today.

Your film does touch upon community and caste.

Community, caste and our places of worship. Everything that can divide us is dividing us. Next will be which door you can enter the temple from and which door you can’t. These people can enter, those people can’t. This is an extremely important film in the present-day scenario. And the simpler it is told, the better. 
That’s why it’s made in a certain way.

I’ve made movies in the past, too. You aspire for different things at different stages of your life. In the earlier phase, you want critical acclaim so that people recognise you for your craft. After you have established that you know your craft, then you have a platform to say something beyond just repeatedly trying to prove yourself. And I think that’s the film I attempted and that’s what I made.

Did Kedarnath satisfy you as a filmmaker?

It has an old-school vibe to it. The additional part is that we have the backdrop of a beautiful 2,000-year-old temple, where the deity sits, that has gone through a storm. And when a calamity of that kind hits, all the silly issues that we create among ourselves go back to nothing. We should see the bigger picture of where we’re going as people, that’s what the film is trying to say.

There was an opinion that said you should have given more to the love story between Sara and Sushant.

That is all talking in retrospect. I really respect your opinion, because you’ve seen the film with more clarity than me because I’m so close to it. 

But there are expectations from you because you are the kind of director who puts his passion into the story-telling.

That’s not the problem. It’s the kind of expectations that people have of me after they’ve seen Rock On!! (2008), Kai Po Che! (2013) and Fitoor (2016). And whether they have liked it or not, they have not seen that as a filmmaker, my attempt is to unlearn, go back to zero and make a film like a newcomer again, so I can discard my previous work. Every time a filmmaker helms a movie, it’s not the truth. There are different sides to it and a director shows his perspective on things, which is his truth.

To get into a new film, I can’t carry my ego, image or credibility. I’m servicing an idea. I have to listen to it as it will tell me how it has to be told. So, I try to leave my ego out of it and just start off as if I’m absolutely new again.

I wanted to tell some of the critics, ‘Why don’t you see it for what it is?’ They are thinking yeh bhi ho sakta tha, yeh Abhishek kar sakta tha, because they are probably calibrating what I could have done in a crafty way. Maybe it didn’t require that much of craft. Instead, it required that much simplicity, so that the last guy sitting in the theatre could hear us. That was the attempt.

How soon will you move on to your next film?

I’ve been working on exciting stuff lately. Some probably with new people, some with established actors... they are different kinds of material. So, I can’t wait to start them. Maybe in the next 10 days, I’ll take a short vacation and then jump right into the next one.