Zaigham Imam feels religion has been commercialised in Indian films
Mumbai: Amidst the religious issues that can boil blood of many in the country, here is a film that is eager to un-tie the knot of communal glitches that has left a sour taste in the harmony of brotherhood in our society.
‘Dozakh, in search of heaven’ is a film that has gone through many ups and downs but will finally see the light of the day on 20th March, exclusively in PVR Director’s Cut.
Zaigham Imam left no stones unturned when he thought of turning his novel into celluloid. The 32-year-old director, in a candid chat with DC, shared his journey of making this film and more.
Q. ‘Dozakh in search of Heaven’ what made you think of a title so unique for your film?
The film is based on the novel I wrote back in 2009 and I added a tagline to the book’s title just so to make more impact and will hence help people to understand the story better. The story revolves around people who are in search of heaven while being in hell kind of situations. The time we are living in, men and women have forgotten about human values and has rationalised themselves on the terms of religion. The story is how humanity looks out for heaven in hard times like these.
Q. Were you trying to hint at any recent events with this title?
As I said, we are living in a time when humans look at each other with a scanner of religion. Every other day we get news of riots or religious outbreaks. That provoked me to take up a story, which is not usually shown in conventional cinema.
Q. What was your source of inspiration for this film?
I have pursued journalism for 8 years with my heart and soul. I have been born and brought up in Banaras. I come from a small town where there were no issues of communal riots but the moment I moved to big cities, reality hit me. I think more communal clashes happen in bigger cities rather than small as the place where I have been raised, I never saw issues like that surfacing. If you talk of Mumbai or Ahmedabad, many of the Muslims are looked down upon and are refused to stay as tenants in major cities of our country, which is not the case in small towns.
Q. Do you think mainstream directors are not confident enough to make religion centric film?
I think the Indian film directors have commercialised religion in their films. The way it’s being projected in the films, it more or less looks like a commodity. If you commercialise religion, then it creates problem but ‘Dozakh’ is not a commercial film. I have not made this film to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments. Stories or scripts of a film do not have religion, it is what we derive out of the story is what affects our perspective. Also in commercial cinema it is more of a profit making business rather than making films out of pure love for cinema.
Q. Do films like that trigger communal clashes?
Dozakh is a story of a father and son. Films like that have never made it big at the box office but people still like to watch cinema that represents our society. Dozakh is, at the end of the day, a film that promotes communal harmony and we all should take a step towards that.
Q. What are your thoughts on the film MSG: The Messenger?
Films that create propaganda should be and must be banned. I think one should keep propagandas out of cinematic frames as if such kind of films are given leverage then it will be very difficult for us to make meaningful films.
Q. What are you looking forward to after the release of Dozakh?
After the release of Dozakh, I would love to make a film on my second novel ‘Main Muhabbat’. I have started preparing a script for the same and will start casting when I am done with this film’s release. However, I do not mind making commercial cinema with satirical social message.
