‘I AM NOT CONTENT WITH ANY OF MY WORKS’

Three-time National Film Award-winning filmmaker Sudhir Mishra made three OTT series Hostages, Tanaav and Jehanabad - Of Love &

War. Now, he wishes to make a series of films in his signature style.

“I’m going to make a film after this (his ongoing series that’s being shot in Lucknow). I’m rewriting some films that I have written, and I want to make three-four films. I want to connect back to who I was when I started out as a filmmaker. Beech mein kuch idhar-udhar ho gaya tha! Waqt kuch aisa tha jahan aap apni tarah ki filmein nahin bana sakte the. Now, I plan to make some films independently,” says the filmmaker, who helmed the film Afwaah last year.

Ask Mishra how he feels about the kind of work he’s done so far, and Mishra says, “I am not content with any of my works. I’m not a nostalgia person looking back at when I wrote Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron

(1983), Hazaaron Khwaishein

Aisi (2005), Dharavi (1991) or

Chameli (2004). The past is done and now few things are again exciting me.” Does he think the audience is more prepared for experiments? “I don’t care about it! I would certainly love to talk to the audience, but I will not be subservient to them. Often, when you make a film from your being, it works. When I made Hazaaron Khwaishein

Aisi, people were like, ‘Will the youth connect with his Naxalism story?’ But my whole reputation among young people is based on that film,” says the

Inkaar (2011) director. About about his next OTT series, Mishra says, “My maternal grandfather, DB Mishra, used to narrate some stories. He had written a book called

Living An Era and he gave the rights to me. I have taken some inspiration from that book. There are also my personal experiences and memories from my friend Ramesh Dixit from Lucknow. The series is set in the late ’70s.”

I’d love to talk to the audience, but I will not be subservient to them. When you make a film from your being, it works.

SUDHIR MISHRA,

Director