It has been a heady year for director Kanu Behl. His new film, Agra, received a five-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It then won the Best Indie Film award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2023. Now, he is eyeing the Busan Film Festival, where its Asian premiere will be held on October 4.
Agra, which stars Rahul Roy and Priyanka Bose, revolves around the subject of sexual repression. Although Kanu considers all his work deeply personal, the idea for the film literally came from his own experiences. “I felt sexually repressed and unable to express myself when I was in my teens. I had heard of similar stories from other boys of the same age. I was curious why it happened and where it’s coming from,” he says.
The director’s curiosity led to two realisations: one, sexuality is connected to the physical spaces we live in; two, relationships are transactional. Kanu explains, “The small houses most people live in afford no privacy. Further exploration made me realise that I had an interesting attitude towards sexuality which nobody had explored yet,” he says. He elaborates on his second observation, “There is a celestial idea of romance that is sold to us. But, underneath the advertisement, lies a transactionality that bares itself in our private moments.
When all these elements started connecting, I knew I had interesting material for a film.” Both his parents—Lalit and Navnindra Behl—established themselves as a writer-director team in the early 90s. It was natural for the son to follow in their footsteps. Kanu majored in film direction from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata, and went on to assist director Dibakar Banerjee on Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and co-write Love Sex Aur Dhokha, before directing his first feature film Titli in 2014.
Like the 2014 film, and Binnu ka Sapna that he made five years later, Agra too uses patriarchal structures as its backdrop. The filmmaker, however, insists that the three films are different in essence. “Patriarchy is unavoidable while trying to make a realistic film,” he says, adding, “Titli is about family and the patterns that travel from one generation to another. Binnu Ka Sapna is on violence and anger, while Agra is about desire.”
Interestingly, Agra does not have a single scene featuring the Taj Mahal. “Within India, Agra is associated more with the pagal khana (mental asylum) than with the monument,” says the 42-year-old, who was going for the madhouse metaphor when he chose the location. “I wanted to explore the subliminal madness that lies beneath our desires,” he adds. Rather than going for the specificity of the city, Kanu wanted the “anonymity of a north Indian patriarchal town”.
When asked why he takes his films on the festival circuit—Titli premiered at Cannes too—before release, the director says it helps the production “become a little bigger than it is, especially when it does not feature big stars and budgets”. Kanu, though, clarifies that he has never sought validation for his work. “I want to tell the stories I want in the best way possible. I consider myself a filmmaker who is in service of the art form,” he says.
Next by Kanu is an investigative thriller titled Despatch starring Manoj Bajpayee, besides a “very interesting spiritual horror film” as well as a sci-fi stoner comedy.