What made you make a film with a backdrop of violence?

Actually it’s not only about violence and fundamentalism. That’s just a strain running through the movie. It’s actually about a journey of two people — a Tamilian Brahmin woman, Meenakshi Iyer, and a Bengali man, Raja Choudhury. It’s about what happens on a journey, when two people are thrown together in unforeseen circumstances, and that too something as destructive as a riot. It’s about how relationships grow and are nurtured when people are forced to be together on a journey. It leaves both richer. In a sense, it is a road movie. I have kept the geographical setting undefined and unstated, because it’s a journey that can take place anywhere.

I think the backdrop of violence brings a little poignancy to the story. It’s about fear, about uncertainty bringing people together. Some of the timeless love stories, English Patient or Dr Zhivago was set in the backdrop of violence. The film is set in a period sometime after the storming of the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. I have been deeply concerned about the ugly head of fundamentalism that has been ravaging the country continuously. Violence once had no place in either Indian society or it’s thought process.

Because the film deals with characters from diverse backgrounds. While Raja Choudhury is a Bengali, Meenakshi Iyer is a Tamilian Brahmin. Very obviously, she can’t speak Bengali. Even the other characters in the film come from different regions of India, they actually represent the country’s several parts and cultures. Like there is a Muslim couple, a Jew, even two Sikhs. Isn’t it a fact that we tend to speak to people from our community in our language, but with people from other communities, we speak in English?

I think it’s a positive trend, since it reaches an audience that is beyond just one particular regional group. But I also believe that a film should be made in English only if the subject deserves it, if it’s a universal subject, if to talks to people beyond a certain region.

I had seen Rahul Bose’s work in English August and then Split Wide Open. He is a good actor, very controlled and very intelligent. He plays Raja Choudhury in the film. I had thought about some other actors before I focussed my attention on Rahul. I made him go through costume-and-make-up test, and felt he would be perfect for the Raja character. Mrs Iyer is played by my daughter, Konkana, who I feel is a very sensitive actress. She puts in a lot of research in her work, she takes the trouble of analysing her character. She has taken pains to portray the character of Meenakshi, a postgraduate in physics.

Yuganto which dealt with subjects like ambition, ecology, politics and relationships. It was about how success makes us compromise with things and issues, how it hems us in. But I think in terms of making a difference, it has Paroma, which dealt with an extra-marital relationship that is not yet ready to accept a woman’s right to sexual freedom. — INFS