Nandita Das interview: ‘Hema Committee report has sparked an awakening’

A member of the competition jury in Cannes that awards the prestigious Palme d’Or in 2005, Das and her fellow jury members — German-Turkish actor and women’s rights activist Sibel Kekilli, who played Sansa’s handmaiden Shae in Game of Thrones, Algerian director Sofia Djama and Egyptian actor Menna Shalaby, the first Arab woman to be nominated for an International Emmy Award — will present the festival’s top prize, El Gouna Golden Star for the best narrative film, which carries a purse of 50,000 dollars (approximately Rs 42 lakh), on November 1. Das, whose filmmaking journey spans such acclaimed works as Firaaq (2008), based on the 2002 Gujarat riots, and Manto (2018), a period drama on the Partition, talks about her experience of judging films, the importance of film festivals in the times of war, the freedom of expression and her next project. Excerpts from the interview, which was conducted in El Gouna:

How significant is it to be the president of the jury of an international film festival in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the middle of a war?

I have been on other juries — twice in Cannes, Marrakech, Karlovy Vary, Shanghai and San Sebastian. It is the first time for me on the jury in this region. I was almost going to come to the El Gouna Film Festival last year, but the situation in Gaza became very bad and I could not come. It is always conflicting because the situation in Gaza has still not improved. It is not like it is business as usual. At the same time, a film festival is a mirror to the world and to life. I guess that is how we explain to ourselves that the show must go on.

The cinema in the Arab world today is led by women filmmakers who are telling powerful stories of inequalities and oppression from within and outside. How do you view these works?

In India, we don’t get to see as many Arab films as a focus. When we had Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival in Delhi, if you remember, we were suddenly exposed to Asian films. Similarly, when I come here, I see so many different films. We, on the jury, have seen four films so far and three of them were from the Arab world. They are very powerful stories. Films are happening the world over, not just in Hollywood or Korea or India. Small countries are telling their stories. That for me is the most interesting part of coming to such festivals. We have 15 films in the competition section for feature narratives. In fact, our job is also to present a separate prize for the Best Arab Film. When we say Arab or Asia, there are similarities, but there are also unique differences of each country. It is also interesting because through films you get to know the people, the culture and the socio-political situation.

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When was your last visit to the MENA region?

I came to the Cairo Film Festival in Egypt in 2002 with Mrinal (Sen) da’s last film, Aamaar Bhuvan, which was his last film in which I acted. Mrinal da got the Best Director award and I got the Best Actress award at the festival. Ismail Merchant had also come. Mrinal da and Ismail Merchant completely took me under their wings. That was my last memory of Egypt.

You were part of the jury at Cannes twice.

I first went to Cannes in 2005 and it was as a member of the competition jury. It was very early in my career as well. I started acting since Fire, which was released in 1998. And in 2005 I was on the jury of one of the biggest film festivals in the world. It was memorable also because the other jury members were very interesting. We had (American novelist) Tony Morrison and (French filmmaker) Agnès Varda. Both of them are no more. Both were amazing women and inspiring, whose works I have always admired. There were also (actors) Salma Hayek and Javier Bardem, (German filmmaker) Fatih Akin and (Hong Kong director) John Woo. It was a fabulous jury. (Bosnian-Serbian filmmaker) Emir Kusturica was the president of the jury. It was an incredible experience. One, you get to see amazing films, but also equally important are the deliberations.

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Through discussions of films you are actually talking about life, you are sharing your own experiences. Judging a film is subjective. One person likes something the other person doesn’t depending on many factors like your nationality, gender, cultural background, age, mindset and upbringing. Through all of that lens you choose a film. For me, those deliberations told me so much more about life than cinema. We gave the Palme d’Or to the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, for L'Enfant (The Child). There was a lot of debate because there was (Austrian director) Michael Haneke and a lot of other big filmmakers in the running. Eight years later, the Cannes festival called me again to be on the jury for its Cinéfondation programme for short films. I always say that time is the only real judge of art. If something stands the test of time, you know it is great art. 

What has been the journey of Zwigato like following its world premiere at the Toronto film festival in 2022?

Zwigato was born during the coronavirus pandemic. We were all ordering food, a little more than normal then. We had contactless deliveries, you didn’t even see these delivery drivers. You just saw them on the street, wearing the same T-shirts, struggling with the phone, the app. I started talking to them and I thought, okay, there is a story here. I made a short film. I wanted to make an anthology of four directors together. That is how we went to Applause Entertainment, but two of the directors backed out because they got bigger projects. It was then Sameer Nair of Applause Entertainment said, why don’t you make this into a feature film? He really pushed me to make the film.

As I started researching, I made the character of the delivery driver’s wife as interesting and powerful. If you are talking about anything in India, you can’t ignore the other intersectionalities of gender, caste, religion or class. Then the film project started becoming more complex and I started enjoying the process of writing and developing it. Zwigato was made and released just after the pandemic. The people were not watching smaller films, they only wanted to watch spectacle films. So, I was waiting for the film to come on the OTT. We had to wait for a long time, but Zwigato is finally available on Amazon Prime.

What is your next project?

I have started writing for the next film; just finished a draft. It is about relationships. It is a story about a couple. It is, maybe, my most personal story.

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There are many Indian women filmmakers today compared to when you began your filmmaking journey, creating a huge impact with their works.

When I made Firaaq in 2008, I used to be called to women filmmakers’ panels. There were literally only four or five women filmmakers then — Aparna sen, Kalpana Lajmi, Tanuja Chandra, Farah Khan. Only in the last 15 years or even less, we are seeing a lot more stories and a lot more women directors. A lot more women are writing and directing. A lot more women are producers. They are controlling budgets. Of course, there is a big change. Now there are not so many panels on just women filmmakers. Now we are the token woman on the panel of filmmakers. But we are nowhere near it being representative. Women are 50 percent of the population in India. The percentage of women who are actually being able to tell their stories is still in the single digits. But things are moving in the right direction.

There are serious allegations of sexual harassment and difficult working conditions for women professionals in the Malayalam film industry following the release of the Justice Hema Committee report.

I hope it will come to other parts of the country as well. It is an awakening. I always find Kerala to be a land of contradictions. You have some of the best filmmakers, best stories, and best literature there. But you also have patriarchal systems as well. I think it has taken a long time for women to create a body like the Women in Cinema Collective and speak up. But hats off to the women because it is not easy.

You are one of the few Indian artists who speak out against the polarisation happening in the society today.

Society has become so polarised that we have to engage with other thoughts, other ideas and other ways of seeing. We have to communicate why we feel humanity is more important. Why we feel religious fanaticism on any side is dangerous. Why freedom of expression is so important to an individual as well. The role of cinema is to reflect what is happening in society. It has to be part of the story.