Back‘Pink’ was made from a gut feeling, says film maker Shoojit Sircar
'Pink' asks a searching question for a discerning urban audience: Who a woman sleeps or goes for a walk with is a matter of choice
Premium
The film Pink, which released on 16 September, revolves around an incident between three single, working women in Delhi and a group of well-connected men. The presenter and story-writer of Pink, Shoojit Sircar, discusses the film’s agenda, his contribution to it and among other things, the mysterious gas mask Amitabh Bachchan’s character is seen wearing in the film.
There is a feeling that your creative involvement in Pink is more than a story-writer. The promos suggested that too.
I did have quite a bit of creative involvement. But that’s how democratic the set up in my production house is. The film is bigger than all of us. If my interference is good for the film, then it is justified. I have a friendship with Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (the director), an established Bengali filmmaker, who wanted to enter the Hindi film industry. He owns the film as much as I do.
But I’ve taken some important decisions in the film. For instance, the design of the second half was very different originally. Until then the film was about the fight of these girls to prove in court that they hadn’t taken money for sex, that they are not “sluts". I was on a flight from Kolkata to Mumbai when it struck me that what if a woman reaches a breaking point and accepts it, for argument’s sake, that yes she’s a slut. What happens after that? I realized this is what the film should be. I came out of the flight and called up Aniruddha and Ritesh Shah (the screenwriter). Everyone said it is going to change the film. But we had to do it. The whole point should be who a woman sleeps or goes for a walk with is a matter of choice. Leave her alone and that the message should be clear.
Can you elaborate on the design of the second half, that transforms into a courtoom drama.
Many people told me that audiences will get bored if we spend the final hour in the courtroom. But an hour is nothing compared to what women in the country go through year after year on a daily basis. The court in the film is like a literal translation of real life, where women are made to stand in a witness box, dodge stares, checked out top to bottom and face society’s moral policing. I also wanted to play with the audience’s own preconceived notions. Patriarchy is so ingrained in our psyche, that most us propagate it in small ways even without realizing. I thought, we should let the audience judge the girls. And then give them the relief, make them feel that your sister or girlfriend could be made to stand in their position too. Ritesh did an incredible job about the way he dresses up the arguments, laces the dialogues with an undercurrent of sarcasm and makes us reach the point in a convoluted but eventually satisfying way.
Also, the night of the incident was originally supposed to appear in the beginning. But I decided during editing that putting it with the end credits will be much more effective.
Also Read: Amitabh Bachchan: I am happy people are still asking me to work
What was the initial idea of the film?
Aniruddha came to me with the idea of making a Bengali film about three single working women sharing an apartment. The theme was moral policing. But I told him it should be made into a Hindi film. A small incident at my house triggered it. My wife and I were having tea in the morning. The news of Mangalayan reaching Mars that day was on TV and the newspaper on the table had an article about women empowerment. She casually pointed out at the irony of it, how shameful it is for a modern world that is breaking new grounds in space exploration to struggle about women empowerment. It hit me. The film was made from that gut feeling and I can see how it has hit people in a crude way.
We jumped into the scripting immediately and got started. For the role of the lawyer Deepak Sehgal, I wanted someone who will have a profound voice without sounding preachy. Mr Bachchan has that stature and gravitas. But I was skeptical about approaching him. We have a beautiful working relationship and I’m always scared that I’ll spoil it. I didn’t want this to be an obligation for the success of Piku. I sent him a text about the plot about three girls and that it is an important film. He called me to his place next morning and after listening to my two-minute brief he said yes immediately. This took us completely by surprise because we didn’t have a proper script in place at that time. I told the team, “Guys, we’ve got Mr. Bachchan in our film. Now what?". He had given his dates for January 2015. I asked him if we can do this in March. He agreed.
People don’t quite know what to make of the gas mask Bachchan’s character wears in the film.
I was at his residence to discuss the script one day when he just walked in wearing track-suits. The mask was just lying somewhere in the room. When I got curious, he told me it is a high altitude mask that Abhishek had brought him. It is supposed to be good for the lungs. Sometimes I can cross all limits of decency for the selfish interest of my film and I ended up asking him if he could wear it for me. I clicked him on my phone and when I saw the image, I knew I had to use it in the film. We didn’t indulge into the bipolar tendencies of his character in the film but the mask gave him a touch of bizarre—this mad neighbour with a strange mania in a city with rising levels of pollution. Also, it was easy to shoot him in the streets because people didn’t recognize him.
Also Read: Film review: Pink
Being an all-male team how did you make sure you are able to look at the issue of women with empathy ?
As men, we can never fully understand the experience women go through. We tried to get close to it. We studied cases of rape incidents from Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengalure. We juiced out the arguments from them and realized there were harsh realities inside the court itself. The real problem lies in people’s perceptions. My writer Ritesh Shah and I would sit across each other in the shoes of the character of Mr Bachchan and Piyush Mishra, throwing questions at each other. We would swap roles.
The casting helped too. Tapsee Pannu, who is in from Delhi, has a first-hand feel of the problems in the city. Or Andrea Tariang, who is from the north-east. They took the decisions of some of the costumes. I would ask them to wear what they would normally wear to a party. This helped them feel ownership of the characters.
We were careful about the gaze of the camera. You can understand the integrity of the filmmaker from his camera angles. You can’t hide anything from it. Women are beautiful to look at but it depends on where you are looking. One wrong camera angle could have destroyed the depiction of a woman in the film and reduced her to an object of desire. The intention was to see women as simply humans. Our DoP (director of photography) Aveek Mukhopadhyay positioned the camera beautifully to manage that.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
