FILMIKHABAR

She began taking baby steps into mainstream cinema by editing Taare Zameen Par, scripted by her husband Amole Gupte. But Deepa Bhatia has taken huge strides since, editing Rock On!! and now My Name Is Khan.

In what seems like a parallel universe to Bollywood though, Bhatia just picked up two awards for her searing documentary on farmer suicides at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) last week.

Called Nero’s Guests: The Age of Inequality, the film tracks the crisis through the unstinting work of Magsaysay award-winning journalist P Sainath, as he holds up the mirror to an India irrelevant to many of us.

In the past Bhatia has also worked on Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara, Dev, Thakshak and Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa.

From the San Francisco in MNIK to the villages of Marathwada in Nero’s Guests, Bhatia tells us about spanning alternative universes.

What drew you to edit My Name Is Khan?

I don’t do pure commercial cinema; I can’t connect with the brain dead. I enjoy films that say something through the mainstream idiom. MNIK had a message, a political idea behind it. I loved the script and as an editor, I knew I would be challenged by its epic scale.

Karan Johar and you have an unlikely work marriage…

That was my biggest fear. His grouse against me is that I still haven’t seen Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (laughs). We come from different worlds. I have worked with Jahnu Barua, Govind Nihalani; I believe it’s cinema’s job to change the world. I wasn’t sure Karan and I would get along. But it’s been a revelation. He is democratic and clear about what he wants, and he gives you space.

(Above and facing page): Stills from the film Nero’s Guests

You were making your documentary Nero’s Guests at the same time.

I’ve worked on Nero’s Guests over five-and-a-half years. I shot with Sainath, going to villages. The issue of farmer suicides wasn’t a quick fix subject. You have to mull and decide. I have over 300 hours of material.

There was financial pressure, so I did Rock On!! I focused a year on Nero’s Guests, then MNIK happened. Doing both this year was tough physically. I would edit MNIK for 15 hours, go home, help with my son’s homework and edit Nero’s Guests at night.

Did you feel schizophrenic working on films from disparate genres?

I did. The inequality was so glaring, it was painful. The smallest thing would happen on MNIK and the media would go nuts. Two lakh farmers have died, but you struggle to find space in the mainstream media. Families lost a member over Rs 5,000. It was heart-wrenching.

There was a big disconnect between the two worlds. I felt more motivated, though. And when I ran out of funds, Karan let me finish my documentary in his editing space.

What has the documentary taught you?

Sainath says it repeatedly – the suicides are one thing, the rural distress another. For every farmer who dies, there are many who don’t, but are in exactly the same condition. Address the rural economy, the public healthcare system.

I wanted to show the inequality in the rural and urban worlds. My language is simple. I want to talk to college students, not to the converted. We do try to connect those who want to help with the ones in distress. Yet, my belief isn’t in solutions, it’s in the awakening.

You worked closely with Aamir Khan on TZP. He has also produced a film on farmer suicides called Peepli Live.

I’ve heard about it. I’m curious to see it and I hope the issue is sensitively portrayed.

Finally, your husband Amole Gupte had audiences raving as Bhope Bhau in Kaminey.

(Laughs) Acting was an accident, but Amole had a good time. He’s now shooting this charming, tiny film Stanley Ka Dabba that I’m cutting. Hopefully, we should finish that by summer.

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