Interview: Oscar-winner Asif Kapadia talks about 'Amy' and his desire to work with Irrfan Khan

Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees received the ‘best documentary feature’ for ‘Amy’ at the 2016 Oscar Awards. ‘Amy’ is a film detailing the life of the late Amy Winehouse, the ‘Back to Black’ singer, from the early beginnings of her career in the late ‘90s through her death in 2011. ‘Amy’ relied on home movies of Winehouse to open a compelling window into her life. Asif Kapadia, this year, even bagged a Grammy Award for his film ‘Amy.’ 

In light of their win, here’s a dna exclusive interview of the director. The article was originally published on June 7, 2015. We’re republishing it in light of the Oscar win for Amy.  In a phone chat, Kapadia spoke to Amrita Madhukalya about filmmaking, Amy, and his keenness to work with Irrfan Khan. Here are some edited excerpts from the interview: 

Tell us about Amy. 

I think the film is about an extraordinary talent, what I really love about her is that she built her career on her own, and had a great voice. Everyone knows the voice, but what you see when you see in the film is what an amazing writer she was. It’s so much matured and deeper than anyone really knew then. What’s special about her is the humour. People who didn’t like her fell in love with her, and people who did were crazy about her. In a way, the records are just a tiny part of her talent. Hopefully when people see the film, they’ll see that it’s a very sad story. She was amazing. 
Also, this is my version of a Bollywood film, because this is a musical. The songs are the narrative, they’re the spine of the film. All of the lyrics are really the emotion, and that’s where Amy is eloquent. I need to see how that works in India, because, for me, this is the brilliant kind of film I grew up with when I used to watch them with my mum. There are visuals and characters, and the film revolves around a song.  

How did Amy happen?

It came from my producer James (Gay-Rees), who was also my producer in Senna. He contacted me and he said, ‘Look, what do you think? Would you be interested?’. And because I was making a film on London Olympics, I was thinking about the city a lot. And it felt like perfect timing to tell a story. Because it was very much a story of time, it’s about fame, music, art, love. It’s also about what happens if you are not prepared to be famous. Young people now just want to be famous, and be stars. That’s the upside, there’s also a downside; if you’re not secure and are not surrounded by people you could trust.

First Senna, and now Amy. Is there a tendency to unravel a tragic star? 
Definitely. But, I think, it all happened by chance. Senna happened because I was a sports fan, and Amy because I was a music fan. Amy Winehouse was a Londoner, and I am from London. 

How would you describe your directorial style? 
I like to present a story in a documentary with a lot of visuals, and a lot less talking heads, and sweep through the story with pictures. Amy is a continuation of that, where there idea is that the film is decided by the archives and videos, and the most of the visual in documentary are the pictures. 

The Amy story is such a tragic one. And is it right to assume that she was not really the one to blame?
It’s so complicated, honestly there’s no one reason why things happen the way they do. There was hundreds of things that happened, and they all happened at the same time. Amy had various issues that troubled her growing up, which she somehow put into her writing, her songs. The problem appeared to be that all of  those issues came to the fore when her second album, Back to Back, became famous and successful. When you have money and fame and people who are attracted by that, and Amy was very considerate as a person, and that terribly became the perfect storm that led to what happened to her. 

Image Courtesy; Amy Winehouse's facebook.com page

There were some unheard songs you unearthed while filming the documentary. Will there ever be another Amy Winehouse album?

Honestly, I don't know. The archival matter is ethically not with me. Right now, I have the film at hand. It was quite incidental, there are some live songs, a few with her and just a guitar. But, I can't say.

Amy's father, Mitch Winehouse, was not very pleased with the way the documentary has portrayed him, even though he is not keen on pressing legal charges. How do you react to that?
My job was to make a film about Amy. That's what I set out to do. I met a lot of people, got a lot of footage. She was a very honest person who spoke from the heart and wrote from the heart. And to make a film about her, one has to try to be as truthful to her as possible. And the film is made from the material I got from the institute, the footage I saw. This is the honest representation of what I found from our research.

When can we expect Ali and Nino? What are the other projects you are working on?
I'm in post-production right now with Ali and Nino. So it should be out sometime next year. There are no other projects. I think the right answer to this question is that I am really keen on working with Irrfan Khan. I say this every time, and Irrfan says that we should really work together. We're desperately trying to find a film to work together on.