Filmmaker Kanu Behl is crystal clear about the kind of cinema he wants to be associated with. Since his first feature film Titli (2014), the director has only made one movie Agra that's set to hit the screens this Friday. In these 11 years, Kanu Behl also directed Despatch, a direct-to-digital release, and the short Binnu Ka Sapna.
The independent filmmaker said there's a reason why he makes less movies, and it's not him.
"It takes a lot of time to find a collaborator who agrees with my vision and what I want to do. Earlier, I was able to find out one. Now with this excessive corporatisation and this attack of platforms on any sort of work that is actually trying to talk to people and is not just dumb entertainment, it's becoming tougher and tougher," he told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
It was always a tough fight for indie filmmakers when it comes to getting screens in theatres and the situation has only worsened with streamers also becoming severely corporatised, added Kanu Behl.
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has never minced any words about criticising Netflix for its policies regarding the Indian content, recently slammed the streamer for snatching away top shows such as CID and The Kapil Sharma Show from television.
On Anurag Kashyap being outspoken about calling out Netflix, Kanu Behl said, "I will just add to this that a lot of major directors in Bombay are really done. They are only here because they are waiting for that last switch to happen. I don't want to take names but we all talk amongst us and as a result, one good thing that has happened is that us, filmmakers, have bonded together.
"At least, there are more honest and frank conversations that are happening. Because it's not just the fringe players now who are in a difficult place, it's the guys who are in the middle also who are in the system who now seeing that unka bhi number aana shuru ho gaya hai. Everybody is on that brink and it's not just Anurag. Anurag has perhaps been on the frontlines (of the conversation) and he has always spoken his mind."
Kanu Behl's Agra, which premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, is releasing the same day as another film with 2,000 screens.
"I have 100 screens... The bigger battle for filmmakers like me is to expand and sensitise the audience to films that are more than just Disney-fied Class 3-4 Bollywood films."
The director also said the film industry is at "a huge inflection point".
"We are watching filmmakers on the forefront slowly choking to death in front of us. It's not just me. You look at all the other independent filmmakers... I'm in touch with most established filmmakers in town, and without taking any names, they are struggling to get things going because the platforms that were supposed to be the harbingers of some great revolution, they are talking about TV++ and second-screen friendly content," he said.
Things were looking up when OTT platforms entered the Indian entertainment space, but the bubble burst pretty soon, according to the filmmaker.
"Woh hum logon ko pehle teen-chaar saalon mein bewakoof bana gaye (Streamers tricked us in the first three-four initial years). Humein yeh laga ki kuch change hone wala hai (We thought things are going to be different) but actually their first entry into the country was into the metros and they had a certain idea as to what the audience wants in the tier 1 metro cities.
"And they picked up a few given named indie filmmakers, isko le lo, usko le lo, unke saath kuch cool cheezien kar lo (let's pick him, then her, and do some cool stuff with them), and the moment they sort of expanded their reach and tier 1 was done, and they said now the subscription will come from tier 2 and tier 3, the mahanubhav (top brass), the key people who are in-charge there apparently advised the angrez people that only Bollywood works in tier 2 and tier 3," he said.
Without taking names, Kanu Behl also came down heavily on the equation between the premiere production banners in Bollywood with the streamers, calling it "incestuous".
"The relationship of these five-six production houses with these three-four OTT platforms is also another sort of incestuous relationship. Someone really needs to call this out. And no one is talking about it because everyone thinks maybe something will work for me with these platforms so I won't speak up. Usmein baat nikali jaa rahi hai (That's where we are losing out)."
Right now these conversations are happening among individual filmmakers in "silos", but Kanu Behl is hopeful about the future. "There will come a time when a collective voice will also come to the fore. But at least these conversations have started in smaller groups."
Through his latest offering Agra, the director said he was trying to give sexual repression "a context of space".
Co-written by Kanu Behl and Atika Chohan, the film explores the mind of a young man, played by debutant Mohit Agarwal, struggling with his sexual desires while living in a cramped household in Agra. It also stars Rahul Roy, Vibha Chhibber, and Priyanka Bose.
"We have over 140 crore people, China also has these many people but its landmass is double of ours. We are all so tightly packed in, almost like a can of sardines.
"That the fight for everyday survival takes primacy over everything, this is also something that we are seeing in our economic situation right now. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, (I was trying to present the film through) the lens of transactionality, desire, and fragile human relationships and I was not doing that from a place of judgement," he added.
Did no one have an issue with him naming the film 'Agra', a key city in Uttar Pradesh?
According to the filmmaker, nothing happened as they used Agra only as a metaphor in the film.
"This could be any city, we are not trying to say that this is Agra's problem. My films are primarily for my own people. Festivals like Cannes and all are alright but that's just to get enough equity to make your film bigger so that back home people can have the opportunity to see it.
"But when I was naming the film, I thought since this is such a madhouse and the moment you think about pagalkhana, Agra comes to your mind. I thought this idiom would be very interesting for the Indian audiences."
Kanu Behl said every film that he makes is an opportunity for him to have a conversation with the audience.
"Cinema is a very powerful tool. I don't want to do the stupid, infantilised, Disney-ised version of Bollywood that we see peddled around us. I do it in the most honest and courageous way. Whatever life I'm observing around me I'm trying to reflect that in the most human way possible. If the film is difficult to look at, imagine what real lives are like then?" he asked.
The filmmaker hopes viewers go to cinema halls to watch Agra, a film he described as one made with "a lot of love".
"It is a difficult film but it shows you a mirror. And if you really are in the mood to see something that moves you, is courageous, is honest, and is not afraid to pull any punches, please go and watch it," he said.
Kanu Behl is hoping against hope that Agra remains in theatres for long enough so that the audience spot his film amid a sea of mainstream Bollywood.
