Tumbbad Director Anand Gandhi Opens Up On Emergence, Other Future Projects And Sushant Singh Rajput

It has just been a few days back that Tumbbad had celebrated its anniversary. The film, starring Sohum Shah in the lead, did not open big in the theatres, but when it released on OTT platform, it received warm response. In fact, it redefined how the Indian audiences viewed horror as a genre. One person who deserves credit for the success of the film is definitely Anand Gandhi. But he is also much more than just Tumbbad. He had earlier directed Ship Of Theseus which gained critical acclaim and will soon come out with a film called Emergence which talks about a new fungus that poses a threat to humankind. In a exclusive interview, we got a chance to interact with the genius himself, as he opens up about his upcoming projects, about what goes on into making films and how he imbibes philosophy on it and on good friend Sushant Singh Rajput. Here are some excerpts...

First of all, how are you? How was the lockdown for you?

I have been very well. I have been very fortunate to get an opportunity to sit down, reflect and focus on our scripts because thankfully our production had already been completed.  Two of our major projects were in post production in the last few months and the rest were in pre-production. It provided a very focused opportunity to consolidate our ideas and put them in scripts and finish post production of the existing projects.

5 years back, you had predicted a situation like this and that’s what Emergence would be about. That’s very intriguing…

For the last 10-12 years a lot of scientists have been saying that sometimes on the top of their lungs to wake us up towards the eventualities, so that we can be well prepared for that. But now having lived through one, there would be a massive change in how we review public health. I have also put together a scientific advisory forum for emerging risks called ‘Safer’ with scientists and doctors around the world which is going to be doing exactly that. It would look at all the potential risk especially in the sphere of health and keep ready guidelines for state servants especially in South Asia so that the advice can be extended.

Whenever we talk about Anand Gandhi, it’s Tumbbad that comes on our minds. Did you expect the kind of reception that it had gotten?

I did. I felt that it had the potential to become a motion picture event and this can be one of those films that is deep and vast at the same time. With Tumbbad, I wanted to push my craft. I wanted to dive into philosophical questions and I also wanted to deal with extremely intense and primal emotions. To achieve these emotions, I wanted to use craftsmanship that surpasses the imagination that one might have seen anywhere else. That ambition, that hope was always there that it would be received well from the audiences.

You talked about merging philosophical questions with emotions in Tumbbad. You do that in most of your films. Is it like you develop the story from the philosophy or imbibe a philosophy in the story?

It’s actually co-evolving process that goes on in the mind for a very long time. There are lot of philosophical questions that we keep looking answers for and there are narratives that keep blossoming in the mind all the time. Very often these stories and these philosophical queries that one is trying to resolve come together and something unique comes up. Once you are convinced that it’s the kind of thing I want to give a couple of years of my life to, thaat’s how a film happens.

Tumbbad received more response when it released on OTT  than when it was running in the theatres. Do you feel OTT has come as a boon?

Most certainly. I am very appreciative of the OTT space. I think it was only a matter of time that such democratization happened. I am also a huge lover of cinema, so theatres are not going anywhere. I think both have a space to exist simultaneously. I continue to make films with the hope that they would be viewed in both spaces- in the theatres and in people’s sitting rooms.

You had also put Ship of Theseus for open download and encouraged torrent downloads...

That’s right.

What was the reason behind that?

We have grown up in an environment where cinema and literature and culture in general were not very easily accessible. In the 90s, we did not have very easy access to good cinema, literature or art of the world. The journey to find answers was challenging. At the same time, it kept the dedication away from us for a very long time. Then, piracy became a norm in the early 2000s, and we did reap some benefits from it. There’s no denying that. Filmmakers did benefit from the fact that the films that were not available in the region was suddenly there. I felt that I owed to the landscape of free education. So as a responsibility to that nature of education, we thought we could do that with the Ship Of Thesues. It had been sold to really good partners around the world, so we did not feel any insecurity. Sohum (Shah) and my intention were to exactly make a cinema like that give it to the world with complete love and share it with people who would not be otherwise able to pay for it.

Do you see yourself doing this again?

I certainly do foresee doing this, but now we are making much bigger multi-million dollar projects which involve a lot of investors now. It may take nudging and seducing my partners and investors with the idea, but I don’t foresee being not possible. I always want to have the space where I can put my work out for people who cannot pay for it.

What are you currently working on?

I produced a show that I am very excited about. It’s called OK Computer directed by Pooja Shetty and Neil Pagedar. It’s absolutely brilliant. Pooja was the head of designing for all our projects and Neil has assisted me before. The two have been working on it for years. It’s coming out on Disney+Hotstar in December. I think people are going to really like it.

Do you think your projects are ahead of its times?

They are, I guess. That’s also the idea. What’s the purpose of culture and art- it’s to go forward to a better future, otherwise it is purposeless. If it’s about getting titillated for little while and going on about your life and nothing changes, then what’s the purpose of it? The purpose of art is to entertain towards enlightenment. It’s to enthrall, move the audiences and to give them emotions so that they can move towards building a better future and that’s the singularly important purpose. And for that, sometimes you have to speak about things that are urgent and chronic and might become acute, like you spoke about Emergence. It was ahead of its time 5 years back and now it’s behind. So if you don’t think ahead of the times, then the time will come and we won’t be prepared for it.

Talking about Emergence and the pandemic, you lost two of your very good friends during this time. You had mentioned earlier that you wanted to make Emergence with Irrfan Khan. It has also been said that Sushant Singh Rajput was a part of the film. Was it true?

It is true. Sushant was the longest admirer of the project. In fact he was involved from more than two years ago. Sushant is always a part of Emergence. He was more a part of the project than anyone else I have spoken to. He would wake up on random morning and message me about it, you know. If you knew Sushant, it was like he would not so much care about his own place in the world as much as he would care about the worldview. We had really really amazing, inspiring  conversations about the change in paradigm, about world view. He would have so many questions about them. He was always curious.