DEVAJI, CAN YOU LEAD WITH THE ACTOR TALKING ABOUT HOW IT WAS DISRESPECTFUL FOR A JURY MEMBER TO DISS KASHMIR FILES.
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00:00All kinds of point of views should be heard and should be entertained
00:04because only then will there be a growth as a country.
00:08If we keep brushing under the carpet things that happened and giving them a hue of,
00:14you know, romanticism or a hue of, you know, just coloring it one color,
00:20then we are bound to repeat those mistakes again and again.
00:24We have to learn from our history.
00:26Good evening, this is Mandusha Radhakrishnan.
00:31I'm the entertainment editor for Gulf News.
00:33I'm here with actor, director and producer, can I call?
00:37Oh, yes.
00:38Yes, a producer, Nandip Udha.
00:39Co-writer.
00:40And co-writer.
00:41He wears multiple hats and his movie premiered at, it did not premiere,
00:47it was screened actually at the IFFI Goa, which is ongoing right now.
00:52Nandip, it's a huge honor for you, right?
00:54To have an opening night film done or at least released forward.
00:57From the Indian panorama and because it's already released,
01:01but I'm very grateful and honored that it was the opening film and it was very well received.
01:08People were clapping and laughing and doing all sorts of things in the theater,
01:12which is very heartening to watch as not just an actor,
01:16but as a storyteller who's engaging people.
01:18So it was very good screening and I'm very grateful.
01:21And what an interesting choice of subjects in this biopic,
01:24he has chronicled the life of Savarkar.
01:27An interesting choice.
01:28How do you think people will perceive you directing it?
01:31Would people think that you've sold out?
01:35No, it's a subject.
01:36If I was to make a movie on Mr. Nehru, would that be set out?
01:40I think he was as much a freedom fighter as any one of them, probably greater.
01:46And also he's a very controversial and misunderstood freedom fighter,
01:50which also gave me a lot of fuel to discover new things
01:54and myself as an actor, filmmaker, and also to bring it forth to people.
02:00Because there are many point of views.
02:03It is, I state in the beginning of the movie that we have all been taught
02:07that India got his freedom only by nonviolence.
02:10This is not that story.
02:11And it is an incomplete story if you say that India only got his freedom through nonviolence,
02:15because there were a lot of thousands of people who were hung or jailed
02:20or exiled in our country.
02:23If they did not matter, then why were they punished so severely?
02:26Whereas the nonviolent people were put in brushed jails.
02:30And, you know, it's a whole thing.
02:32I discovered a whole politics and whole point of view of which you're looking at history.
02:40So, yeah, so it was a big challenge.
02:42And, yeah, there is a there was a fear that, you know,
02:47that are so loud and all those things and a lot of people
02:51especially from especially from the present day Congress party,
02:57which even they've been maligning him for years.
03:01So that was expected.
03:03But the movie was received very well.
03:05Excellent.
03:06We drew applauses and full theatres across India.
03:09And we did good business.
03:11And yeah, so I don't think that really matters.
03:16Because it's after all, a film.
03:20If a subject can make you a sellout, then yeah, OK, great.
03:24Right.
03:24Now, what I have to say, yesterday, Shekhar Kapoor at the opening ceremony said,
03:27we live in a very highly polarized world.
03:30Tell your stories.
03:31Whether it's good, bad, ugly, it doesn't matter.
03:33Tell your stories.
03:34Don't you think, you know, independent cinema or let's say a film festival,
03:39it has a bandwidth for different kinds of stories.
03:41Like, yes, all kinds of point of views should be heard
03:46and should be entertained,
03:48because only then will there be a growth as a country.
03:52If we keep brushing under the carpet things that happened
03:55and giving them a hue of, you know, romanticism
03:59or a hue of, you know, just colouring it one colour,
04:03then we are bound to repeat those mistakes again and again.
04:08We have to learn from our history.
04:10And people who don't learn from history, repeat it again and again.
04:13I'm telling you, what the environment was in the country in 1920,
04:17when the Khilafat movement happened,
04:19and there was a different electorate given to the Muslim population
04:25and given extra seats in the House of the Incarnate Government.
04:31That kind of appeasement that kept multiplying,
04:33leading to the division of the country.
04:36And it is the same politic that is played today,
04:39whichever side it is.
04:41Even his Hindutva was for independence.
04:43He gave a political and geographical and cultural identification
04:50to who is a Hindu.
04:51And he did not make a distinction in terms of your caste or your religion,
04:59as long as you love your country
05:01and you call it your motherland, your fatherland,
05:03and the land of your spirituality.
05:06So, that is more of a lesson what we need today
05:10than just that.
05:10And just being okay, you know, non-violence,
05:13it's a very romantic thought.
05:15You know, even Savitri Saab felt that Buddha is the biggest apostle
05:18to walk this planet.
05:19But he respects him deeply and reveres him,
05:23but he doesn't agree with him.
05:25Because the world is not a painting of green mountains and blue streams.
05:31It has people with red fangs.
05:33So, how do you deal with those people?
05:35So, he felt that the way to peace is to be equally armed as other people.
05:42And in fact, his militarization was lauded by the army generals of India
05:48after the defeat or humiliation we faced by China.
05:53Because we did not concentrate on building up our armed forces
05:56to protect our borders.
05:58And yeah, and today we are respected as a country,
06:01not only because we've got great diplomacy,
06:03but because we are armed to the teeth
06:05and nobody messes with us.
06:06You know, we are producing weapons and we are selling weapons.
06:10Like, you know, it's a joke.
06:12I often think that the members of the Peace Council,
06:18UN Peace Council,
06:19they're all weapon makers.
06:22I mean, you know about politics.
06:24It's the guns lumpy that actually fund the campaign.
06:28Yeah, there were wars going on because wars did menace.
06:30But Savitri Saab felt that when the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bomb happened,
06:34he says,
06:37We took to violence to attain our freedom,
06:41not to, you know, destroy humanity and destroy the world.
06:47That was not their aim.
06:50And I think it's about time we start telling the other side of our story,
06:54which does not give us an apunsak image in the world
06:56that if you slap us on one cheek,
06:58we put the other cheek forward.
06:59No, we will not.
07:00Think about it and we'll break your jaw.
07:02That kind of thought process is what leads to people respecting you.
07:09And that's what Savitri Saab advocated throughout his life.
07:13He did not hate Mr. Gandhi.
07:15He hated the idea of non-violence
07:17because non-violence does not have the provision for even self-defense.
07:23Did you also as a person change with this directorate?
07:26Because I feel you're so invested in it.
07:28You have done your research.
07:29You've done your legwork.
07:30You're not coming from a place of like, you know, vanity.
07:32It's not a vanity project.
07:33Yeah, none of your projects are vanity projects.
07:36If you're in a movie, Randeep, it's because you,
07:38I feel, truly believe in it.
07:39You want to be a part of it.
07:41With this one as well, did you feel as invested?
07:43And there must be a point, right?
07:45As a filmmaker, what did I do?
07:46Like, why am I in this?
07:48When it, was it frustrating?
07:49How frustrating?
07:50The frustrating was the process of making
07:52because I did not have wise-minded people who started the project.
07:55And that was the biggest folly on the entire process.
08:00But, you know, I knew it was a controversial subject.
08:06I knew, but I had to make it with a lot of responsibility.
08:10And it was unfortunate that it got released in the election time.
08:15Because I wanted to release it on 15th August and on 26th January.
08:18But we were going through litigation and all kinds of stuff that people,
08:22I don't know, talk about was death.
08:23And it so happened that the movie finished
08:26and we were in the middle of election by that time.
08:30And that, the opposition party, they gave it a hue of it being a propaganda film.
08:37And if it's a propaganda film, then why didn't anybody help me?
08:39I got no organisational support.
08:41I excluded.
08:42I thought it was like a walk in the park for you.
08:44No, it wasn't.
08:44I had to send money.
08:45I had to stay in my own house to finish the film.
08:48That's terrible though.
08:49I assumed that.
08:50I'm okay.
08:51Everybody assumes.
08:51I apologise for that.
08:52Because while I was walking, I was like,
08:54oh, this must have been the easiest thing where you're funded.
08:57So, I suppose that this gives it for...
09:01There is no organisational support.
09:03None whatsoever.
09:05See, you mortgaged your house for this movie.
09:08Yes.
09:08And I made it back.
09:10I got it back.
09:10It was just purely on the quality of the movie and people's curiosity.
09:14And I really made it for young people that, hey, you know,
09:19the maligning of this character and the uneducated name-calling
09:26and not knowing so many other freedom fighters
09:29who played a very important part in our freedom struggle.
09:33They were all brushed under the carpet.
09:34So, this was a challenge in that sense.
09:36And I wish I had some organisational support.
09:39I wish I had that.
09:40It would have made my life easier.
09:42But then, neither was Mr. Savarkar's life easy.
09:45It's very hard to own Mr. Savarkar.
09:47It's very hard to own up to him.
09:49Though, you know, even our parliament,
09:52the new parliament was inaugurated on his birthday.
09:54Yes.
09:55But still, there was no support that came our way.
09:57And we just...
09:59I just fought it low in battle.
10:01Have you emerged stronger from it or more tough?
10:03Oh, yes.
10:03Or exhausted?
10:04I started as just an actor, you know, as actors are,
10:08actors are children.
10:10They're narcissistic.
10:11And happily so.
10:13Well, some of them are.
10:16And then, by the time I finished the project,
10:18I was a director, I was a writer, I was a producer.
10:21I had a fucking company.
10:23I had a company by the time this movie finished.
10:26And I've got a turnover in that company.
10:29And all of a sudden, so all that struggle did lead...
10:32Struggle is the one that leads to growth.
10:34Yes.
10:34So maybe Mr. Savarkar came into my life
10:38and made it tough for me to do this project
10:42to probably teach me more in my life.
10:46And that's how I take it.
10:48And also, his life, towards the end of his life,
10:54he went unrecognized when he was falsely accused
10:57in the Gandhi assassination.
10:59And they accused him.
11:01Because once he's accused,
11:02then it's a Hindu that killed Gandhi, not an individual.
11:06And then, of course, then he just...
11:08Then it became...
11:09All the world's newspapers said,
11:11Hindu kills Mahatma, which was not true.
11:14It was an individual who took it upon himself.
11:16He was a part of Hindu Mahasabha,
11:18but he was no longer a part of Hindu Mahasabha.
11:20And Mr. Savarkar had nothing to play in it.
11:22But you're going misunderstood, right?
11:25By edificating him, yeah.
11:26There were three major political parties at that time.
11:29And I am not really a political person to tell you the truth.
11:31But that is what I have learned.
11:33There were three major political parties at that time.
11:35The Indian National Congress, which is not this Congress.
11:37This is the 72nd division of that Congress
11:40that is the present Congress.
11:42And there was the Hindu Mahasabha.
11:43These were the three major national parties
11:45that are competing for power
11:49to take India forward as a free nation.
11:51So Muslim League went to Pakistan, right?
11:54And when they vilified Savarkar in this case,
11:58which he was later on let go,
12:00after another year he spent in prison in free India,
12:05Hindu Mahasabha was decimated.
12:07So there was only one party left,
12:08which was Indian National Congress again.
12:09And they won unopposed in 1952,
12:12which was actually the first election of our country.
12:14The first time around, they were just appointed
12:17by these old British educated lawyers.
12:20They appointed each other as prime minister,
12:22defense minister.
12:25But I think you're more stronger for sure from this.
12:28Oh yes, oh yes, I'm an unsung part of it.
12:32Yes, I'm an unsung part of it.
12:33This movie got a lot of love,
12:36but it should have gotten a lot more love.
12:40And it will, because after all this time,
12:42after Savarkar's gone,
12:44he's still relevant in India, in the discourse.
12:48So will this movie be.
12:49And I know, of course.
12:50And you know, how did your marriage survive this?
12:53He was very supportive and she does her own thing.
12:56So she lets me out of the house and say,
12:59come back when you're done and all that.
13:01And she saw my whole struggle with the weight
13:05and this and that.
13:06And it was not, it was just my wife.
13:08I was married to my crew and my cast as well,
13:11because we were all so thick as things
13:13because you're all trying to make something.
13:14So that's something that matters.
13:18And being showcased at IFFE,
13:19I think is something you should be really proud of.
13:22I think, because a lot of people actually talk about it,
13:24the choice of selection.
13:26Last, I think the year before that,
13:27it was controversial again.
13:28The Kashmir Files came out, right?
13:30So people do talk about it.
13:31Kashmir Files is a different movie.
13:34It's made differently.
13:37And this is not that kind of a movie for sure.
13:41It's a biopic to say the least.
13:44And even if Kashmir Files was there,
13:46it was wrong for the jury to point it out
13:48because somebody has made a movie
13:50and you cannot like it.
13:52But to point it out in the final space by the jury
13:57and was absolutely, I didn't like that at all.
14:00I haven't seen the movie,
14:01but I didn't like it at all that
14:02because it's somebody's vision.
14:04And it's subjective.
14:05And it's subjective.
14:06And you're an artist.
14:07You're an artist yourself.
14:08So that was very disrespectful of them.
14:10But I'm so happy that the reviews are there
14:13and people are watching it.
14:14And the movie released last April.
14:15So that's done.
14:16But now I hope you take it around the festivals,
14:18around the globe.
14:19I'm surprised that it released
14:21and they still chose it
14:22because they have this cutoff, right?
14:23The movie can't release.
14:25It's in the panorama section,
14:27which is unfortunate
14:28because I really wanted to...
14:30To win competitions.
14:31Yeah, to win competitions across the globe.
14:32But it was just, it gets the thing.
14:34And then of course, there's a whole,
14:36this whole thing of, you know,
14:38the world is going through violence
14:40and, you know, we need non-violence.
14:42But our movie does not glorify violence.
14:44It says glorifying violence for a purpose.
14:47Even Gandhiji did it.
14:48In the first world war,
14:50he recruited people for the Indian army.
14:52Second world war,
14:53Savarkarji recruited people.
14:56Gandhiji was,
14:58he made a medical ancillary force
15:00against the Zulus with the British.
15:03So Savarkarji asked him questions.
15:04So what is it?
15:05You supporting violence is violence.
15:07What is it subjective?
15:09So he had a lot of,
15:10he was very intellectual and very,
15:12and in the course of his life,
15:14he did also become a bit bitter
15:16because he was not getting his due
15:18and the people with better marketing skills
15:20were getting ahead.
15:21But you made a movie out of him.
15:22So he's done something, right?
15:24Yes, yes, yes.
15:25And I caught his bust in my office.
15:28You do?
15:29Sometimes I go walk past it and I go,
15:31my God, I have played that man.
15:34You know, I made a movie on that man.
15:36And it's amazing.
15:38In Pune, I'll tell you where,
15:41in Maharashtra,
15:42he wrote in Marathi and he spoke in Marathi a lot.
15:45So he put,
15:47unlike Mr. Gandhi,
15:48who had a lot of tutors to teach him
15:50to get rid of his Gujarati accent
15:52and his British accent,
15:53he stuck to his old roots.
15:55So he got limited to Maharashtra a little.
15:57But in Maharashtra,
15:58there were old people who come touch my feet
16:00and they found out that I've sold my house
16:02and they'll come give me money.
16:04It was very embarrassing and flattering,
16:07but it was...
16:08There was also their love, right?
16:10I mean, it's also a sign from a civilian coming up to you.
16:13It's not a straight review.
16:15There are a lot of people who were closet
16:22people who like Savarkar more than Mr. Gandhi.
16:25There are a lot of such people.
16:28But it's just probably not cool.
16:33It's not cool.
16:34Yeah, yeah.
16:34And history is how,
16:35it's your personality.
16:36History is written by the hunter.
16:38If the lion wrote the history,
16:40he'll say,
16:40he missed me,
16:43his hands were shaking,
16:44he was peeing in his pants,
16:45and then his friend shot me.
16:46He's taking a picture with me.
16:50Well done, Niu.
16:51I'm so proud of you, though.
16:53And I really hope it does well
16:54and it gets a lot of love.
16:56On that great note,
16:57I really hope you continue to entertain us
16:59and make interesting movies with unique voices.
17:02Thank you so much.