‘My life revolves around questions’

Adventurer in spirit, charming by nature, quick with words and adept at winning over minds with his ideas, director Shekhar Kapur, who has made international period films like Elizabeth and The Four Feathers, and Indian hits like Mr India and Bandit Queen, recently launched a documentary titled The Science of Compassion, on spiritual leader Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma) in which he investigates the source of human compassion and creativity. The erudite director opens up about life, spirituality, movies and more in a freewheeling conversation.

Sense of adventure “Filmmaking is a great adventure,” says the award-winning director as he settles down for this interview. “I’m as excited as a kid to be given tickets to fly suddenly to England, South Africa, America, everywhere. I’m still a 13-year-old kid, flying. The day you stop being childlike, you stop being creative. One cannot only rely on one’s experience and skill because they are not going to last. The only way to keep up with the world and carry on creating new adventures is by imbibing a childlike fearlessness. That’s what being creative is all about. Creativity isn’t something that you can conjure up at will,” he says.

Ask him whether that’s also one of the reasons why he never gets tied down to one genre, and he nods, “Yes. You constantly need to be provocative and you need to recurrently provoke yourself, yourself. Different genres provide you and your creativity with all sorts of interesting provocations. For me, shifting forms is an exciting adventure. I like to live through my characters.”

Atman to Amma The Science of Compassion was shot at Amma’s ashram in Kollam district of Kerala over four days, during her 60th birthday celebrations in September 2013. This nearly 50-minute film includes a private interview with Amma and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Leland Hartwell. Recalling how it all started, Shekhar ponders for a minute and shares, “I was working on an installation called ‘Water’ that now sits at Mumbai’s T2 international airport terminal. It allows visitors to interact with musical notes by running their fingers through a water fountain. It runs on ‘Haptic’ technology and at that time I was looking for places or people who would provide me with this technology. While researching about it, I got to know that it was available at one of the centres run by the Amritanandamayi Trust. That caught my attention as I had heard a lot about Amma, the hugging saint from Kerala who assuages people of their troubles with a squeeze. I knew that she spends more than 12 hours every day hugging thousands of followers, ridding them of woes when she presses their heads against her soft, rounded body always draped in white. But what puzzled me the most was, what was she doing in ‘Haptic’ technology Finally, I met them (Trust) and got in touch with a highly qualified scientist who had given up everything to be with Amma and be close to her Trust. I went back after my work was done and I left it at that. I briefly interacted with Amma when she came to Mumbai and that was it. After a couple of years, I suddenly got a call from London from a person I knew with a special request to shoot Amma’s 60th birthday and I readily agreed without having the slightest idea that the entire world press would be there! I was as amazed as I was shocked at the gathering.”

“I even struggled to place my camera. Then I did what I thought would be different and provocative. I started speaking to her followers, that included the poorest of fisherwomen, scientists and billionaires. But even after so many exchanges, I wanted to see first-hand how she (Amma) would respond to my questions directly. Who are we What are we made of In this infinite world, why are we finite What is the concept of individuality Are we individuals or are we part of a whole These were the questions I had and put forth to Amma. And the documentary emerged out of this sheer accident.”

Like with all godmen and women, Amma too has been critiqued for amassing a fortune from misery. But it doesn’t vex Kapur. “Our lives are mundane and we as humans will always resent a person who doesn’t lead a mundane life,” he laughs.

Kapur counts new-age speaker Deepak Chopra and Yogi Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev as his friends, and has spent time with the Dalai Lama. “I have always been fascinated with spirituality. I have been haunted by the question ‘What is infinity ’ since I was 12. I would lie on my back on the terrace of my Nizamuddin home in Delhi and ponder about the Milky Way with my mother. I’d ask her where the sky extended to And she’d say, to forever. I’d go to physics class the next day and they’d tell me anything that can’t be measured doesn’t exist. That’d leave me thinking about things like why can’t I imagine infinity and forever Then I’d start reading the Gita and verses like ‘I am that which I was not, and I am who I am and I am whom I am not’, puzzled my mind further. Then I went on to study quantum physics, which brought me back to Advaita philosophy. My entire life revolves around questions. That’s the prime reason why I spend time with these gurus. They all give me beautifully different perspectives towards particles, universe and individuality,” he shares.

Probe him on why he hasn’t made a movie on this and he quickly replies, “I was working on a movie around the Buddha but I dropped it midway. But now I am finally working on a virtual reality-themed thing in the US wherein I plan on giving each individual a spell-binding experience in science, spirituality, emotion, life, the afterlife, etc.”

Emotional Honesty Kapur believes there is no link between emotional integrity and the money a film makes. “Five scenes of emotional honesty make a good film. Honesty is the most crucial element that decides the fate of the movie. If you do that then the audiences’ subconscious will connect with yours,” he says, adding, “I believe you are a trickster when you sit down to plan what the audiences will like and dislike and accordingly take calculated steps. And it’s up to you to decide whether you want to be a trickster or you want to use your art to express yourself. Even when you are making a commercial story, the same principle stands true. The trickster kind of movies, though successful, won’t last. A filmmaker’s heart and soul should be seen clearly in a film.”

The 100 crore club “Always remember a line, it’s from Shakespeare. When Julieta’s maid asks her how much does Romeo love you, she said, ‘Beggar is he who can measure his worth’. So the moment you say my film made this much money is the moment you reveal that you are not happy with your film,” he laughs. “Once you start measuring the money, you turn into a beggar. Passion is endless. You should never measure it in terms of money,” he says. “There is a commercial aspect to our lives. And there are two gods: god of passion and god of commerce. For people who decide to choose the latter, even `300 crores as a box office collection can never be enough,” he says.

Hollywood and Bollywood Kapur, who is a favourite in both the Indian and International film industries, perceives the difference between the two as: “Production and design. And it’s not even about Hollywood or Bollywood. It’s about movies from everywhere. Our films cannot even come close to Chinese films if you compare the magnitude of production and design. The problem lies within our mentality bada star mil gaya toh film hit ho jayegi. So no one cares about lighting, set design, production and stuff like that. However, I have to say that commercial Indian cinema-wise Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s sense of design is pretty good.”

A wild, young Shakespeare A drama pilot chronicling Shakespeare in his tweenties will be out soon on the small screen. The Elizabeth helmer is directing the pilot, which comes from Craig Pearce, the longtime writing partner of auteur filmmaker Baz Luhrmann. Ask him if he is obsessed with Shakespeare and he clarifies, “I am not obsessed with him at all. In fact, I hated him a lot. When I was young I was told that if you are bright and intellectual, you will understand Shakespeare, so I never bothered reading him. I hate intellectuals and the arrogance that they carry. It was only when I investigated about him that I found out that he was just a man of the masses. He used to write for the street people and that too those kinds who, if you compare in India, will buy the ticket to a Salman Khan movie for the first day, first show, and dance through the entire movie. And Shakespeare gave these people all sorts of masala — love, hate, betrayal, tragedy, etc. For me, Shakespeare was an ideal man from Bollywood.”

The inspiration for the show came from an unlikely place — one of Asia’s largest slums, Dharavi. “This show is like Dharavi transported into the 16th century. It is meant for common people, the people on the street.” Talking about the TV space he shares, “TV is bigger than movies now. Game of Thrones has more viewers than Star Wars. It is much more competitive as well, with the best of directors and production houses as well as channels entering the space.”

Mr. India sequel Lastly, there is still a large segment of Indian movie lovers obsessed with Mr India, Kapur’s 1987 blockbuster. Would he ever consider making a sequel “Unfortunately, I don’t have the rights. And I don’t know who has them. If I ever get its rights, I’ll make it in a heartbeat,” he says with a grin.