F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

LSD ? Yes, thats Love Sex Aur Dhokha. Dibakar Banerjee’s new film. In an industry where a filmmaker’s success is measured by the budget he can manage, Dibakar is in reverse gear. After Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Dibakar is going digital, low budget and Adult! Just 2 crore film. We caught up with Dibakar to know more. Read on. 

Peep show : The film is about voyeurism. This film is essentially about how we have become a generation of voyeurs and flashers simulatenously. This film is about keyhole. On one side of the keyhole is a guy who is peeping in and on other side, there is a person who is hoping that someone io peeping in, and then its us, who are seeing all this. And it is adding bizzare subtext to our society. On television, newspapers, other media, we are obsessed with the most meaningless trivia of what other people are doing about their life. Thats one part of the film.

Loveology : The other part of the film is how we see love. I fall in love with a person. And I fall in love with a person in contempoprary India. Those two situations are completely different. Because today when I fall in love with somebody I have a history of 80 years of cinematic love to tell me what love should be, how a person in love behaves, what is the outcome of love, what happens when you are in love and how love conquers all. But when we try and take that route in real life, we realise that what the film shows and what life shows us are two differnt things. And am very excited about that difference.

Mera-Camera : These are the issues that this film is trying to deal with. And the reason to take completely new people is that voyeurism is specially effective when it is not constructed, when it is not fictional, when the camera is really candid. Even when I fake the camera into movement so that it looks like candid, but if you see someone like Abhay Deol or any other actor, you will know that its not really candid.

Kamre me Camera : This film cant be done if I dont go digital. If we shoot it in film ,this film wont be there. What we are trying to do with this film is actually totally new kind of filmmaking. We are trying to change the rules. We are making the film with real people. The people are given situations in which they are free to interpret and go forward with just a symbolic guideline from me. And people will be shooting the film themsleves often. And they will be shooting each other. And we will see a film which is not seen through my eyes, we will see a film which is seen through the eyes of people who are within that frame. That is essentially what voyeurism is all about. Thats what we are trying to do. The whole cast is made of people that we have not seen before. Trying to address the issue of reality show. I find this term very interesting – reality show. This is the oxymoron of oxymoron. This is the film all about. Its about reality, its about show, its about showing and peeping.

Imran-Abhay : The kind of subjects that I tackle and the kind of liberty that I want to take with my filmmaking, its fine with me to exist in the smaller bylanes of great big industry that bollywood is. I think huge biggie would kind of take it all away all  and subvert me from what I am trying to do. So the next one is definitely not a biggie, its middly or smalley compare to other people’s budget. We are trying to address a very hard hitting social and politicallly issue that we face in our country. We are trying to bring together two actors whom we have not seen in a film yett. Its not done, we are trying. If it happens, people will see actors in that kind of role which we have not seen before.

And if you missed it last time, here is Dibakar Banerjee on love, life and cinema. Published in Outlook.