BENGALURU: AJ: The National Awards ceremony story is my all-time favourite. Your next film, An Encounter with Faces (1978), not only won awards in India, but was nominated for an Oscar in 1979 in the Documentary Short Subject category. It’s a very moving film about an orphanage, and I’m sad to say, it’s still so relevant. When I saw it again on YouTube recently I was struck by the first shot. How did you do that?VVC: You mean the shot coming into the railway station? The cameraman refused to take the shot so I did it myself. I handheld the Arriflex 2c 35mm camera and rotated it. Once the train pulled into the station, I ran after the kid onto the platform—so the movement was continuous—it was all in one shot.AJ: It’s a great opening.
VVC: An Encounter with Faces won many honours, including the Golden Peacock Award at the International Film Festival of India held in Delhi on 16th January 1979. The Best Short Film Award was given to me by the great Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi. The event was widely covered by the press with write-ups and photographs. Abhijat, let me tell you something more about Mr L.K. Advani’s kindness towards me. He knew I was not well off, so after I had left the FTII, he made me a member on the FTII Governing Council. My airfare to attend the meetings was paid, and so for many months I lived on that airfare—880 rupees.
I would save the airfare and buy a third-class ticket and travel by train. Once I was appointed on the Governing Council, they discovered I was not even an FTII graduate. I had not passed my final exams because some teachers didn’t like me. In their opinion, I was arrogant and outspoken and not a particularly good student. I was good at making films but poor when it came to submitting papers. When I got appointed a GC member, the FTII staff objected because I had failed the finals. That’s when they decided to give me the diploma. So I got my diploma two years after I had actually left the film institute. By that time I had won several awards for my short films, including an Oscar nomination.
AJ: Why were you regarded as too outspoken? Was it your honesty that led to the spat with your tutors?
VVC: Maybe. It’s important for me to be honest—even though it was often inconvenient. I wanted to shape my own life and have never knowingly compromised while expressing my thoughts or making movies. I may make a bad film but it never crossed my mind to make a dishonest one just because it might make money.
AJ: Did that have something to do with the way your father thought?
VVC: Probably yes. He once told me: ‘I have no problem if you become a cobbler in our narrow lane, but you must be the best cobbler.’ On that same day, he told me a story that had a great impact on me. There was once a great saint in Kashmir who lived in the nearby hills. The legend goes that one day the ruling maharaja, riding his horse, went to meet the sadhu. He found the saint sitting on a rock enjoying the wintry sun.
The maharaja did not dismount and from where he sat, he addressed the sadhu: ‘I have heard many things about you, Swami-ji. Please tell me what I can do for you. Can I build an ashram for you? Just say the word and you can have anything you want.’ The sadhu looked up and could only see the silhouette of the maharaja against the bright sunlight.
The sadhu said: ‘My friend, you’re blocking the sun falling on me. Could you please move a little?’ The maharaja immediately got off his horse and moved away. He repeated once again: ‘Swami-ji, please tell me what I can do for you.’ The saint smiled and said: ‘You have done what I wanted. There’s nothing more I want.’ ‘But you have asked nothing of me.’(Extracted from Unscripted: Conversations on Life and Cinema by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijat Joshi, with permission from Penguin Random House)