New Delhi, March 6: “Superboys of Malegaon” director Reema Kagti believes both the industry and the audiences have the potential to celebrate different kind of movies, not just tentpole cinema with big stars.
Kagti’s film, which documents the real-life story of Malegaon-based filmmaker Nasir Shaikh, released in theatres last week.
The filmmaker, known for her critically-acclaimed movies such as “Honeymoon Travel Pvt Ltd”, “Talaash” and streaming show “Dahaad”, hopes that people go out in theatres to watch the so-called “underrated” films and not wait for them to release on OTT.
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“There is an anxiety to films that don’t have big actors or stars or bankable people but what I see on social media all the time is people saying, ‘Why don’t we give new actors and writers a chance?’
“And frankly, a lot of people have put good work out there, which doesn’t get seen in theatres. And then it comes out on OTT and everybody starts calling it an underrated gem. But actually you have underrated it as an audience because you can’t be calling the next person out for not going in when you yourself haven’t seen it,” Kagti told PTI in an interview.
The director, who also runs production house Tiger Baby with filmmaker-friend Zoya Akhtar, admitted that the industry did not do well last year but believes that it is just part of the cycle.
“There is a lot of talent, dreams and producers. So I don’t think one bad year in that sense should be looked at as the end… I believe that our industry has the potential to make a range of films because that’s the mark of a thriving industry. And our audience also has the potential for different kinds of films, not just big tentpoles,” she said.
“Superboys of Malegaon”, written by lyricist-writer Varun Grover, dramatises Shaikh’s career, which began with him making spoofs of films like “Sholay” and “Superman” for the audience in his home town.
Kagti, who was also born in a small town in Assam, could see many parallels between her and Shaikh’s journey as movie buffs who loved Salim-Javed (Salim Khan-Javed Akhtar)’s cinema, Bruce Lee, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
“We both are film buffs… In Nasir’s story and experiences, there’s deep love for films and the magic of cinema. The other similarity between Nasir and me that I think is that we were both products of piracy,” she added.
While Kagti travelled all the way to Mumbai to pursue her movie dreams, Shaikh gave birth to a thriving ‘do-it-yourself’ kind of filmmaking that’s still popular in Malegaon.
Kagti wanted to capture the many inspiring elements of Shaikh’s journey in “Superboys of Malegaon”.
“We came from a very admiring point of view. We were not there to judge his filmmaking. We were there to kind of celebrate how in a real small town in India, this film buff just got up and made films just for the love of making a film and inadvertently gave rise to an entire video film industry.
“Nasir initially made his films only to release in his parlour, but because it became so popular, they sort of started following what happens in Bombay when a film does really well — other theatres start asking for it. That gave Nasir confidence to make more films and a whole lot of other people in Malegaon are still making films. But now it’s moved to YouTube.”
There is already a critically-acclaimed documentary “Supermen of Malegaon” by Faiza Ahmed Khan on Shaikh’s life. Kagti, Zoya and Farhan Akhtar, who has also backed the film with Excel Entertainment, said they are fans of the documentary and have paid a tribute to it in their movie but their attempt was to go beyond and create a feature film.
“We wanted to get into the making of Nasir as a director, his friends, the community that made films for themselves. And to kind of explore themes like ‘why is art important? Who decides what is art?’ The importance of people being represented and things like that.
“Which is why Varun said he would like to go to Malegaon and start on a fresh page. Though we had all seen the documentary, he went and started from scratch again in terms of all the research and met people in Nasir’s life. And luckily for us, Nasir is a huge archivist of his own life. So there was a lot of material that Varun had.”
The film also gave Kagti a chance to explore themes like friendship, dreams and how the concerns that Nasir and his group were dealing with reflected the larger world. “We realised that the way Nasir made his films, it was a smaller version of what goes on in a bigger filmmaking hub like maybe Mumbai or any other place. The film also has layers of friendship, an underdog story which can inspire anybody to have a dream. It has a universal message and speaks to a wider audience than just filmmakers.” (PTI)Â
