'Our best stories are the ones that provoke'

Dubai: Encouraging the audience to imagine their own version of the story unfolding on the screen is the best cinematic experience, said director Shekhar Kapur on Monday.

Speaking at a session here as part of Media and Entertainment Fortnight at India Pavilion during the EXPO2020 Dubai, the filmmaker said the Indian film industry will be "completely shattered and unsuccessful if we try to tell the stories."

"We're arrogant enough to call ourselves to call storytellers. We're not storytellers. We provoke. We never tell stories. Our best stories are the ones that provoke everybody in the room or anybody to imagine their own story and that's the best story," Kapur said.

Past is not going to be the future, the 76-year-old filmmaker said, adding every new culture of dissemination changes content.

Highlighting the importance of digital platforms, the filmmaker said, "If you walk around in India today, who's the biggest star? It's not Salman Khan, it's Manoj Bajpayee ('The Family Man'). Because everybody is shifting to (OTT)."

Kapur, known for acclaimed films like "Masoom", "Bandit Queen", "Mr India" and Cate Blanchett-starrer "Elizabeth" series, gave the example of the epic Mahabharat, which he said "had a million of versions".

"That's because everyone else was telling their own story. Then suddenly it had to be published. When you did that, it (the story) became one. Now technology with the internet, it's selling it free."

Describing India as "a nation in flux", Kapur said our civilisation has been in conflict all the time.

"Just look at the Mahabharata, how in conflict we are. Our nation is still forming. So, there constantly will be different points of view. We are tribal people, we go to the tribe we feel comfortable with. And then we'll rush to a tribe we feel safer with," he added.

Asked how he viewed the controversy around "The Kashmir Files", "one of the most successful films of recent times", Kapur said while he hadn't watched the film in the first place, he was aware of the controversy.

When Kapur asked the audience if they had seen the film, a couple of hands were raised.

"What's the controversy then? It's only one or two (who have seen it). Who can raise a hand here and say it is a terrible film? Few people have seen it, nobody thinks it's a terrible film," he said.

The financial argument of making a film is sometimes completely at odds with the creative argument, Kapur added.

"Somebody comes to me and says 'We'll make Mr India 2. We will give you Rs 250 cr. You make it.' I ask why? They say, 'In three weeks, we'll recover all the money.'"

Kapur also said his long-in-the-works film "Paani" has been retitled as "Flow".

"What we are doing in this film is that you create a world and you allow who's watching it to take your world and infer their own world from that," he added.