‘I wanted to visit India after watching Salaam Bombay’

I am a big fan of the golden age, the Bollywood filmmakers of the 60s and 70s. I like Shammi Kapoor’s and Dev Anand’s acting. I love the music of RD Burman and Asha Bhosle.

BENJAMIN GILMOUR DIRECTOR

Australian director Benjamin Gilmour was in Kolkata for the screening of his film Jirga, which has been nominated for the Academy Awards this year, and he revealed that he wanted to “make a life here” in India.

“When Salaam Bombay (1988) came out, I had seen it. And I loved India. Seeing that movie I really wanted to come here,” Gilmour revealed in an interview on the sidelines of the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival.

Gilmour, who worked as a paramedic, revealed that he was a big fan of Bollywood filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. “I am a big fan of the golden age, the Bollywood filmmakers of the 60s and 70s. I like Shammi Kapoor’s and Dev Anand’s acting. I love the music of RD Burman and Asha Bhosle.”

Gilmour, now 42, saved money when he finished school to travel all the way to India on his own at the age of 19. “I came here to volunteer with Mother Teresa, I washed dishes in Kalighat (in South Kolkata, where one of Mother Teresa’s homes was located). I witnessed people dying and it was quite confronting at that age,” he said.

Recollecting more of his visits to India, Gilmour said, “I visited Siliguri and Darjeeling as a teenager. Later, I had also explored Rajasthan, Gujarat, Goa and Kerala. My wife was a part of a traveling magician show with Jadugar Samrat Shankar in 2001 and did a performance with him in Amritsar. We stayed in an accommodation inside the Golden Temple.”

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ Benjamin Gilmour