The irony of denial and acceptance

First Cut

He wanted to make feature films but found a story that compelled him to make a documentary. However, after completion, his film ran into trouble with the Censor Board.

One year down the line, the same documentary has won a National Award. Metrolife meets Ashvin Kumar, who directed Inshallah Football, the film that received the Award yesterday for Best Film on Social Issues and is coming up with  The Forest his first feature and a thriller. 

“I looked at cinema as a career but never thought of making documentaries,” says Ashvin who was keen on making features in Bollywood.

“But on a visit to Kashmir, I came across the story of a young boy and his father Bashir and decided to make a documentary to show the human face of the troubled state to India, which has received little attention till date.”

Inshallah Football is based on the story of Bashir (the leader of a militant group) and his son who wanted to go to Brazil to play football but is denied a visa on the ground of his father’s dubious background.

The shooting of the film was a “learning experience” for Ashvin who says, “There are horrific realities in which Kashmiris have to live. You get a knock on your door and you are picked up by anyone.” But the sad part he says, is that, “Very few people know what is happening in the Kashmir valley.”

And so the director took it upon himself to portray the truth on screen. He informs, “People there are very scared to talk to anybody. There is mistrust among them and very little dignity of expression. Infact, during the first few days, there were many instances when I was disappointed with their silence and the story underwent several changes.”

Son of renowned fashion designer Ritu Kumar, Ashvin says that his mother’s “artistic expression is awe-inspiring.” He recalls his childhood when his mother used to take him along to villages where she worked for rehabilitation of artisans and admits, “The sensibility to understand the suffering and human condition is engraved in my mind.
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All set for the release of his first feature film The Forest, starring Jaaved Jafferi and Nandana Dev Sen, Ashvin is upset with the manner in which Censor Board functions.

“They have given an ‘A’ certificate to the trailer of The Forest which means that they are just bent on petty revenge on my having challenged them. It is not a transparent system and they don’t work on any clear guidelines, rules or processes,” he rues and adds, “Why have a body that encourages conservatism and makes artists compromise their work? It should be shut down!”

Does he plan to go back to making documentaries? “No,” but adds, “It depends on the story,” and reveals that his next flick is based on a, “single woman’s experiences in a highly masculine society like Delhi.”