Naseeruddin Shah was interacting with media at press announcement for ‘Films For Change’ initiative organized by Good Pitch India and Indian Documentary foundation along with Nandita Das, Rajkumar Hirani, Rahul Dholakia and Javed Jaffery on Wednesday in Mumbai.
When asked Shah, how do you feel documentaries need to be treated today and where do you see them going, Shah said, “There aren’t enough people making documentaries out of choice and they weren’t but the wonderful development that seems to be occurring now is that there are. When I was a child and even after that, there was this terrifying thing all the film division documentary that started before any movie and people used to went into the hall late to avoid film division documentaries so I think Film division has probably done more harm to the cause of documentaries than good. Very few of them were worth-watching and they gave documentaries a bad name. My understanding of importance of documentary began when I went into FTII, Pune and saw some great documentaries over their by some international makers, Mani Kaul and Shyam Benegal.”
“ I always had question mark in my mind about the kind of social change that can be brought by cinema even though I have part of so many so called films which have attempted that but what has never been a question mark in mind is the importance of documentary cinema and I really feel that if any cinema can bring about change then it is documentaries and that is why I am very happy and privileged to be here today and I congratulate Javed and Sophie for this initiative that they have taken to encourage documentary filmmaking and to pass on the message that you shouldn’t make documentaries because of helplessness but you should make documentaries which subjects matters to you. I think in general, that seems to be happening in the field of small film-making and experimental play writing as well”
Talking about acceptance for documentaries from viewer’s perspective, Shah said “I don’t know if someday documentaries will show in theatres and people will come to watch it. I think the importance of documentary is for the sake of posterity. You may just find that the idealism with which you gone into it been a little shaken by the fate that documentaries meet. I think it is too much to hope for that people will actually buy tickets for it to go and see it in theatres”
Good Pitch India has also selected four socially-relevant documentary films — “Climbing Uphill”, “Her Song”, “#MISSINGGIRLS” and “Writing With Fire”, whose filmmakers will be introduced to corporate companies, NGOs, campaigners, philanthropists, etc., at an event.
The event will take place at National Centre of Performing Arts (NCPA) on April 4, and will be moderated by Kiran Rao.
