THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Independent cinema faces challenges worldwide as most of the space goes to mainstream films, filmmaker and actor Nandita Das has said. Speaking on ‘Can Art Create Change?’ at the Global Science Festival Kerala (GSFK) she said that art can change the way humans react to situations, but art doesn’t always create a positive impact.
While saying that it is a collective responsibility of the society to defend propaganda films, she added that she is against banning films as she believes in the freedom of expression. “There is already a censor board in which a few people arbitrarily judge your films and what is right for one person is not the same for the other. What is required is to create a discerning audience which is a collective responsibility,” she said.
“Movies, sometimes, can be used as propaganda for something dangerous. If violence is being normalised that is also creating a change. Art in itself does not always create a positive change, it depends on time. Time is probably the only judge of a great art. Real art is made when the mind and heart are both touched by that. The script has its science and if the story is not well told the film will not have the desired impact,” Nandita said.