Goutam Ghose feels sad for Prosenjit

Too many people in Tollywood are talking about how Goutam Ghose���������s ���������Moner Manush��������� deserved much more than what it has at this year���������s National Awards.
But Ghose remains unfazed. Rather, he says, ���������I feel, there should be a rule that if a director bags more than 10 National Awards, he should not even be allowed to send any more nominations.��������� Ghose, incidentally, already has 16 National Awards in his kitty, the recent one being the Nargis Dutt Award for the Best Film on National Integration.
Says Ghose, ���������The National Award on National Integration has been named after Nargis Dutt.This has been done keeping in mind the Hindu-Muslim union of Sunil Dutt and Nargis. Now, this is supposed to be a symbol of national integration.��������� Ask him about the disparity between choices of awards for IFFI and National Awards and Ghose says, ���������IFFI has an entire foreign jury. The only Indian jury member was Revathy. She is a sensible person. IFFI has a single focus. The National Awards, in contrast, has to keep in mind various interests of people.��������� So, what does he have to say when people claim that the National Awards are rigged? ���������Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not. I have been a jury chairman. I know the kind of pressures one has to face. When my film first won a National Award, the jury members were Salil Chowdhury, Bhupen Hazarika, BR Chopra and Ashok Kumar, among others. One would get good jury members then. There wasn���������t so much craze for National Awards. Till the 80s, things were still very fair.���������
Says Goutam, ���������Today, it���������s become a case of everyone feeling compelled to win the Award. There is so much hype in the media too. When I was the chairperson, not only did I congratulate the winners, I congratulated the losers as well. What I find strange is that when Bengal sweeps the Awards, everyone says the Awards are deserved. The moment the verdict is different and the South sweeps the Awards, people change their views. But yes, I am very sad for Prosenjit not winning the Best Actor award this year. It���������s very unfortunate. Everyone who watched the film said he deserved the Award.���������
With Awards a thing of the past now, Ghose then talks about his next project ��������� the
documentary on Mamata Banerjee. ���������I think, I will call it ���������Simply Mamata���������. I plan it as a story of an ordinary person who has gone on to become the Chief Minister of Bengal. So many people have said she can���������t speak well. She has been referred to as ���������o��������� and not ���������uni���������. That���������s all a hangover of babu culture. On top of that, she is a woman. Yet, she has defied all odds to now become the CM of Bengal. Her focus and determination have paid off. It���������s exemplary to see how she gels well with the common man of the State. A private Bengali channel has decided to produce the documentary. I remember an incident from IFFI this year. Our flight had reached late and when we reached the venue, she was already present in the auditorium. She saw me standing in the corner and came up to me and insisted that I take a seat. I loved her gesture.���������
So, has he decided on how he���������ll shoot the documentary? ���������I am still in the process of deciding it. I want to show footage of important events from her life and capture how she spontaneously reacts to them now.���������
What about criticism from quarters that alleges that he has shifted camps after having made a documentary on Jyoti Basu? ���������I don���������t belong to any political party. The documentary on Jyoti Basu was not sponsored by any party. In my documentary, he had also spoken about the historical blunder and had even criticized Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. I know many in the CPI(M) party where this documentary was not even shown because of its controversial nature. Now, I don���������t pay heed to whoever has anything to say about me switching camps. Mamata being sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Bengal is a historic moment for the State. Earlier too, I had protested whenever I didn���������t like something. I had started the film festival in Kolkata. But, 10 years ago, when I saw that a coterie had been formed, I resigned. I was also part of Roopkala Kendro. But there too, when I didn���������t see things happening the way I thought was right, I moved out. I had protested during Nandigram too. I don���������t care if people accuse me of shifting camps now,��������� he clarifies.
As the conversation comes to an end, he says that he is now giving finishing touches to his next movie script. As a parting shot, he says, ���������I am scripting ���������Lala��������� now. There are certain changes that I want to do. But, I shall talk about that later.���������