Exclusive: Sam Bahadur Director Meghna Gulzar Comments On The Political Ideologies

Filmmaker Meghna Gulzar, who becomes a better storyteller with every film she directs is currently on a high as her recent directorial Sam Bahadur featuring Vicky Kaushal garnered critical acclaim. The Free Press Journal caught her up for an exclusive chat as her film recently released on an OTT platform, “The intention is to up your game to meet the caliber of your story you are telling. I feel that my craft should be worthy of the story that I am telling. This is the approach I take with every film of mine. But, I do believe that stories have become tougher over the last few years,” she tells.

When asked her that does box office numbers bother her as a filmmaker, she shares, “Box office pressure was always there. No filmmaker makes a film without it. Everything in the film business is related. Back in the day, when films were made in 2 crores, the box office evaluation was accordingly marked.”

Meghna, who ended up joining the club of successful commercial filmmakers with Raazi definitely feels the content shift in our industry happened around 2010-11. “The shift started from films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Masaan etc. It is very gratifying for all the filmmakers in a way. If we look back to our Hindi cinema, as an industry we follow a certain template of filmmaking. It is a very cyclic process. Like we have middle of the road and parallel cinema that come and go in between commercial one. We are on a better part of that cycle is what I feel with formats and platforms. The current time allows us to tell a story to the wider audience,” Meghna explains.

Meghna, who earlier helmed films like Filhaal, Just Married had later directed films like Chhapaak followed by Raazi and Sam Bahadur that hold National sentiment. When asked about this shift, she states, “I don’t pick up stories because they have a National sentiment but if it seems like that, then it’s merely a coincidence. I choose my stories on instincts and a momentary decision. When I did Raazi, I never looked at as a nationalistic film, I felt it’s about selflessness. It was a story of a woman, who sacrificed everything for her father first and then for the country. Chhapaak was a story of an acid survivor. With Sam Bahadur, it was the way he lived his life.”

On a concluding note, she reveals that her narratives are always politically neutral. “My question is how can one film have two opposing political ideologies? I made a film on Sam Manekshaw and how he ideated his life around people in power at time. There is no ideological take in this film,” she signs off.