Vinod Kapri EXCLUSIVE: he/she regrets leaving his/her roots and his/her mountains

National Award winning director Vinod Kapri, who has made unconventional films like ‘Miss Tanakpur Hazir Ho’, ‘Pihu’ and ‘1232 Km’, has now brought the film ‘Pyre’ (Chita) on the serious subject of migration of the young generation from villages. The film, set in the backdrop of Uttarakhand, is making a splash at the prestigious Tallin Black Nights International Festival, which runs till November 24. In such a situation, we had a special conversation with Vinod Kapri:

After ‘Miss Tanakpur Hazir Ho’ and ‘Pihu’, the film ‘Pair’ is also based on the serious subject of migration of the young generation from villages. How did the idea of ​​making a film on this come about?

I went trekking in Munsiyari, Uttarakhand in 2017, where on the peak I found an elderly couple of 80 years grazing goats. When I talked to him/her, he/she told that there is no road, electricity, hospital or anything there. Get up every day, feed the goats, cook food, eat and sleep, this is life, but my only worry is that when my wife falls ill, there is no means to take her down. There are no people to take to the hospital because the villages have been emptied. Then I thought of an elderly couple who just want to live for each other. Their own people have gone and settled far away, their story should be told. This film is a love letter from the mountains to the world. This is certainly a slightly disturbing film on a very sensitive subject, but it is also a very beautiful love story of an octogenarian couple.

Displacement is the bitter reality of the society. Did you yourself ever leave the mountains and come towards the metropolis? What is your opinion on displacement?

This film Pyre i.e. the pyre is an atonement for the fact that I have left my land, my mountains, my earth. Deep inside, this thing hurts and bothers you that you have left your land, forest and roots for a job and when you are a storyteller, artist or journalist, you think about how to repent for this. For me, this film is that repentance.

In your decade long cinematic journey, you bring an independent film on a different subject every time. Whereas, a National Award winning director like you would also be getting offers from big mainstream films. How are you saved from that?

I have recently done a film for a big studio, in which there are very famous actors. This is a crime thriller, which will be released next year. However, even in that I have not given up my sensitivity. That film is also equally close to life, equally sensitive. Look, every filmmaker is a character and I can’t change that. I don’t have the ability to make a young man a Pathan. I can do films on sensitive stories. I am neither interested nor have the talent in making big films, with big colours, big attitude.

There are many filmmakers who play very well on their own pitch and make very good films with a budget of Rs 10-15 crores, but as soon as they get a budget of Rs 50 crores and a star, they are not able to make them because they are unable to do so on their own land. Would not have been playing. Therefore, I should not leave my land. It so happened that there was a big actor, he/she signed me, the film was going to go on the floors after 4 months, but I told him/her that I will keep it close to reality. You think that you will make 300-400 crores from the film, you will become a superhero, I will not be able to do that, on which the actor said, let’s put the film on hold and it is on hold.

You have been a journalist for a long time, showing the truth of the society. he/she is doing more or less the same thing through his/her cinema also. In such a situation, what satisfaction does cinema give you, which journalism could not give?

I have also worked in both newspapers and TV and I realized that the lifespan of news is very short. Of course there too I am telling the story responsibly, but people forget them within a day or so. Whereas, I wanted to tell stories that people would remember. Like Pihu’s story came from the news only. I was on a news channel and saw a 30-second news that a girl stayed with her mother’s dead body for 24 hours. Now this story was limited to a few columns or seconds in the news but when I found out about it, a Pihu was born. I want to tell such a story.

In the film you cast unknown non-actors like Padma Singh and Hiradevi in ​​lead roles. What is the thinking behind this? How challenging was it to get them to act?

In fact, initially I wanted to make the film only with the elders I met in Munsiyari, whose story this is. After writing the story, I went there with the crew in 2018, but they were not comfortable in front of the camera so things did not work out. Then I talked to Naseer Sahab (Naseeruddin Shah) and Ratna Pathak. Both of them liked the story very much. he/she said that we will do the film but he/she had a question that will he/she be able to do justice to the geographical environment of the story, the hilly faces? And I felt right about what he/she said. Then I thought that I should not fall in love with a big actor. Casting should be done according to the story and we went from village to village in the mountains and auditioned many elders. In that we found Padma Singh and Hiradevi. Hiradevi is a widow. Goes to the forest and cuts grass and wood.

Padma Singh is retired from the army and does farming in the village. We did a workshop with them for a month and believe me, both of them did magical work. Those 32 days of the shoot were no less than a miracle for me. This is the reason why everyone from Gulzar Sahab to famous German editor Patricia Rommel and Oscar winning music composer Michael Danna for Life of Pi joined the film despite our limited budget just by watching the rushes of the film. Even after the film selection at the Tallin Dark Nights Film Festival, there was only one request that you must bring your actors, because the world wants to see them.