Director Anubhav Sinha’s film Assi, which releases in theatres today, is about Parima (Kani Kusruti), a teacher who stays in Delhi with her husband Vinay (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and son Dhruv (Advik Jaiswal). One night, while coming home from a party at school, five men abduct her in a car, rape her, and then throw her on the railway tracks. In the morning, a man spots her and takes her to the hospital. The rape accused are arrested, and the case goes into court. Raavi (Taapsee Pannu) is representing Parima in the court. The film shows how the criminal justice system and societal indifference contribute to the sad state of affairs as far as rape victims are concerned. In a face-to-face conversation with Anubhav Sinha, The Free Press Journal asked him about the various facets of the film. Excerpts:
When and why did you decide to make Assi?
It’s been a longish process, but I can tell you when I started writing it, which was early 2024. But it must have brewed in my head for at least a year and a half.
Has our tolerance for hearing about heinous crimes gone up? If yes, why?
I think it’s the frequency of it, since it’s so often in the newspapers. You don’t have a choice but to get used to it because you don’t take the blame. It’s some people who did it to a girl thousands of miles away from me. You’re not involved in any way. So you just think, too bad something like this happened, and you move on. But I felt I was a party to it. What can I do? I’m a part of the society, right? If you think like that, then it’s grossly disturbing. Otherwise, it’s a news item which you feel very bad about, but you can’t do anything about it. These animals! How can they do that! That’s all you need for catharsis.
Director Anubhav Sinha |
And we keep hearing about injustices, even in this day and age, whether it’s Assi or Article 15, do you think that justice is really served, because it doesn’t seem like it.
Justice and punishment are two different things. Punishment is for the perpetrator, and in this case, justice can’t be served. How do you serve justice to a victim of rape? Is punishment justice? Those are two different things.
I must commend you on your choice of casting Kani Kusruti; personally, I loved her in Maharani.
I haven’t seen Maharani, but I loved her in All We Imagine As Light. You will love her in anything she does because she is a fantastic actress. When I saw All We Imagine As Light, I didn’t see her as a casting for my film. But maybe the personality of her face stayed with me. So all the descriptions I was giving for her character were probably of hers, but I wasn’t saying Kani, until one day Mukesh Chhabra said, “Kani Kusruti?” And I said yes.
Kani Kusruti and Taapsee Pannu in the film |
And what have been your experiences working with Mukesh Chhabra?
He’s very resourceful. He has relations with the big ones; the smaller ones he knows. Suddenly, in his head, apparently, a folder opens up. For example, in this film, I was very worried about the casting of the child, and he used to tell me, “Bhaiya, chinta mat karo.” That was probably one of the last actors he cast for me, and he sent me one audition, not seven, and he said, “Ye lo aapka bacha.”
Mukesh Chhabra |
The promotional tours were in the interiors of India — Patna, Ahmedabad, Lucknow — rather than the metros. So why did you think of doing this?
My travelling to these cities started around three months back. I had finished making Assi by then. Bhushan and I sat down. I was feeling very disconnected from my society. I was also sick and tired of listening to distribution teams who said that these films don’t work in tier 2/3 cities, and I would never buy it. But the data supported them. So I decided to go to those cities and travelled to almost 27 cities. I would be taken to different places, including cinema halls, where I would meet their owners. What I realised was that we weren’t taking the films to them well enough. A bigger film with bigger stars comes into the news automatically when it goes on the floors. On the other hand, people like myself, we start talking about the film when it’s a month away from its release. So when we released the trailer, we went back aggressively to those cities, dividing the cast into three teams, who were doing two cities a day. Then we also decided to have premieres in these cities.
After Thappad and Pink, was Taapsee the obvious choice for you in Assi?
Whenever there is a beautiful part, Taapsee has to be utterly unsuitable for it, which I thought in Thappad she was, and told her so after casting — that she looks like a person who can look after herself; even her off-screen persona is that of a very independent woman. She vehemently said, “No, no, no… wait.” Then she called the hair and make-up team, did something to her face and look, while I was working in my office. She then showed me her transformation, and (clicks his fingers) it worked.
