Nandita Das holds special screening of her directorial debut Firaaq for Rahul Gandhi, but won't hold one for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi
Nandita Das holds special screening of her directorial debut Firaaq for Rahul Gandhi, but won't hold one for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi
On Monday evening, Nandita Das had a special screening in New Delhi of her directorial debut Firaaq. Rahul Gandhi was the special guest.
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Says Das, "He came up to me and said, 'What a film. Everything in the film was just so fantastic.' Then he asked my host Naveen Jindal at the screening if I really made the entire film.
The other attendees were former diplomat Lalit Mansingh, photographer Raghu Rai and Nandita's painter father Jatin Das.
A strange omission was filmmaker and close friend Deepa Mehta who was in the capital on Monday promoting her soon-to-released film Heaven On Earth.
Deepa's close relative designer Ritu Kumar was at the screening. Nandita featured in Deepa's films Fire and 1947-Earth. But they fell out when Nandita was replaced by Lisa Ray in Water.
Says Nandita, "There were three screenings of Firaaq in Toronto (where Deepa stays). She didn't see the film, though I really want her to."
Had to tell the story
Nandita's dad Jatin Das was moved to tears. "He had seen parts of the filmu00a0 before. When he saw it in totality, he couldn't believe I had done this.
He was quite shaken. I guess I'm a chip off the old block. My parents have been fighting for causes. In Firaaq, I had to tell the story of the genocide that the Muslim community suffered after the Godhra incident in Gujarat."
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Nandita did sneak into Gujarat to shoot a few scenes. But she has no wish to take her film for approval to Gujarat.
Apparently, Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi has expressed a keen desire to see Firaaq. But Nandita isn't biting the bait.
"He has apparently asked my producers. I see no reason to show it to him. It's being released this Friday. Anyone can watch it."
Nandita has been careful not to let the film's volatile theme be coloured by political interferences. "It was impossible to shoot Firaaq in Gujarat.
Too may wounds, too many questions, too many hurdles. We couldn't have made the film the way we wanted to. I shot in Hyderabad in stead of Ahmedabad.
We took the decision after checking out a number of cities that matched Ahmedabad's topography.
The best compliment came from my co-writer who's from Hyderabad. She said, 'Are you sure this isn't Ahmedabad?' "
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