Anubhav Sinha on society’s response to rape: Have we become so numb?

Bollywood director Anubhav Sinha’s career can be starkly divided into two halves. From 2001, the year he directed the romantic drama ‘Tum Bin’, to 2016, when he helmed its standalone sequel ‘Tum Bin II’, Sinha was largely associated with mainstream storytelling, including ‘Cash’ and ‘Ra.One’. Then came 2018 and ‘Mulk’, an unsettling courtroom drama starring Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu. Since then, it has been Anubhav Sinha 2.0: hard-hitting, uncomfortable yet deeply realistic films such as ‘Article 15’, ‘Thappad’ and ‘Anek’.

His latest, ‘Assi’, starring Taapsee Pannu, Kani Kusruti (of ‘All We Imagine as Light’ fame), Revathi and others, is an uncompromising and at times didactic exploration of rape culture in India. It is an uncomfortable watch and deliberately so. The subject is urgent: in India, a rape case is reported roughly every 16 minutes.

Although the incident depicted in ‘Assi’ bears a resemblance to the 2012 Nirbhaya case, Sinha clarifies that no single case compelled him to make the film. Rather, it was the relentless stream of rape reports in newspapers, on television and across social media.

“And I have noticed - I might be incorrect - that these news reports don’t affect many of us. Then I questioned myself: Have we become so numb? Some of the stories we read about rape are so horrid and morbid. I entered this story from a position of intrigue,” he said.

But are we becoming increasingly insensitive, especially in the age of reels, where we scroll to the next video and forget the last one in seconds?

“I don’t have a very high opinion of the human race,” he smiled.

Despite consistently tackling deeply rooted social and political issues, Sinha does not believe films can change society. He does, however, acknowledge that cinema can spark conversation and that is what he aims for.

“After ‘Thappad’, I met people who said it changed the way they looked at their relationships at home. But I don’t make films to change society. A film can start a conversation and audiences have the freedom to react to it,” said the filmmaker, who has also backed purpose-driven cinema as a producer of ‘Afwaah’ and ‘Faraaz’.

While researching ‘Assi’, Sinha spent two days at Delhi’s Patiala House Court.

“The judges want cases closed because the number of pending cases is rising. They want to close the case and move on. To tell you the truth, the entire trial process is very cold. If the two parties settle in whichever manner, the court is only happy. They don’t have the time to remain as humanly sensitive as they ideally should be. The outcome of that process is very brutal. But that’s what it is,” said the ‘Ra.One’ director.

Ask him about the so-called 2.0 version of himself post ‘Mulk’ and he laughed heartily. Was this shift in themes and ideas the result of disillusionment with the film industry or personal introspection?

“I have no clue,” he smiled. “I’ve decided that once I retire, which I won’t, I’ll sit back and ask myself: ‘What were you doing?’ Either the first half was a problem or the second half is a problem.”