Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee, known for his acclaimed work such as Shanghai, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, and Khosla Ka Ghosla!, has recently reunited with producer Ekta Kapoor for the second part of Love Sex Aur Dhoka that released in 2010 titled LSD2. In an exclusive chat with The Free Press Journal, Dibakar shares the current status of queers in society, why he claims he wasn’t on a break post Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! and more.
When asked filmmaker Dibakar Banejree about helming a film after a sabbatical, he shares, “It wasn’t really a sabbatical. I made Lust Stories, Ghost Stories after Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015) . I was struggling to release Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar during the first phase of Covid and then it was released by YRF in phase two. Later, all of a sudden it appeared on an OTT platform. So, it didn’t feel like sabbatical at all. It was very gratifying since I could see what other filmmakers were trying to do at that time. Following which, I had tremendous fun while shooting Tees with Naseeruddin Shah and Manisha Koirala but later the OTT platform felt that it wasn’t the right time to release the film. In the middle of this, Ekta Kapoor insisted that I work on LSD2 since the first part came out in 2010. It takes at least two-three years to make a film for me.”
Dibakar, who had changed the style of storytelling back in mid 2000’s feels that he is still struggling with the kind of films he wants to make, “Nothing has changed. I am still hustling with the same mess. I am still jittery before Friday and giving interviews while promoting the films. I went to the loo around five times just before LSD2 was released on April 19. But yes, technology has changed rather the whole feeling has changed. By the time Byomkesh,,, came out in 2015, the OTT scene was pretty much introduced. As a filmmaker, I have started living a new life on OTT. It is interesting to see whether theatres will be wiped off or will be pushed back which seems to be happening though,” he shares.
Sharing further on the current ballgame of social media as LSD2 raises relevant issues, he reveals, “With whatever I have showcased about the social media in LSD2, I feel, our selves and identities are becoming non-binary, I am a man but I have turned into a woman in other plain of existence etc. It is a crucial change that society has seen itself. We see a struggle of society to jump into multiple identities and at the same time, it is worried about the uncertainties and doubling back. It's about the face off between a complete binary and non-binary. I am lucky that I am making films at the moment.”
“I see everything with the universal aspect of majority and minority. We need to look at the queer community as a minority. We also need to see the anti-queer movement as a majority which is trying to bully its way through and trying to deny a multiplicity of the identities to a larger section of society,” Dibakar concludes while throwing light on LGBT+ portrayal in LSD2.
