Interview: This is my country, my father's country and no one can take away my freedom – Sudhir Mishra

It has been four decades since you started making films. During this time, the world of films has changed on many levels, from single screen to multiplex and now OTT. How do you reinvent yourself to adapt to this changing era?

That is nature. I am the son of a mathematician, so my life education is such that for me everything is a possibility that anything can happen at any time. Nothing is in your control. You have to live in this hustle bustle of the world, where something or the other will keep happening. New things will keep coming. The advantage of being a little educated is that you have a little knowledge of what is going to happen in the future. For example, the world will now move towards AI and there will be destruction in the next five-ten years. Cinema itself will be reinvented. Now a boy sitting in Jabalpur, Jamshedpur will make a film and reach the Cannes Film Festival directly, because even sitting there he is connected to the world, which is the best teacher. He will not be dependent on any teacher. This is a change and if you have to survive then there is no other option but to adapt to it. Have you ever seen a deer struggling to get out of the mouth of a python? It is the same thing. I get scared and run away because I want to survive. I want to make films. I don't want to retire. I don't want to die. I will die, but I don't want to die. I want one eye to be open and someone to tell me what is happening in the world, like Sanjaya of Mahabharata (laughs).

Whether it is your film 'Dharavi' or the 'Tanav' series, the city is an important character in them. How was the experience of shooting in Kashmir for the series? Did you face any difficulties?

I have not found a place more beautiful and easy to shoot than Kashmir. Recently I was shooting in areas like Lucknow-Kanpur, where I myself am from, there are more problems there. There are less problems in Kashmir. If you face any problem in Kashmir, then go for a walk in the hills in the evening, all your problems will go away. That place in itself frees you from stress. The people there are amazing, the food there is amazing, I liked it very much.

The series is a remake of the popular Israeli drama 'Fauda'. What is the attraction of remaking an adaptation that has already been made? Do you have any structure in mind? Is there any convenience if the story is already a hit?

Right now I am working on the series 'Summer 77' which is completely original. We have written it ourselves, which is based on reality. To be honest, I sometimes find adaptations more difficult. Adapting something already made to your own milieu, that too within the boundaries of the same story, sometimes becomes difficult. Whereas, in the original you have complete freedom to flow as you wish. Here you have to play within the boundaries but there is also a bit of spontaneity as the plot is almost the same. However, we have changed a lot of things as well.

Your films have a socio-political tone. They try to intervene. You talked about limitations, do you think it has become difficult for filmmakers to speak openly in today's time?

It is not difficult for me. I say clearly that I am not a sensationalist. I do not want to hurt anyone badly. I do not want to insult anyone. I will say whatever I want to say at my time. This is my father's country, my country. I could have left here anytime, but I did not leave. Now you cannot take away my freedom from me. After 2014, many famous foreign newspapers came to me and asked me to speak, but I said that I will not speak ill about my country in foreign newspapers. The so-called fundamentalists keep writing on Twitter, I never wrote. I will tell the story I want to tell sitting in my country. Well, it was difficult to tell my story before, it is difficult now too (laughs), but if I sit hidden, then who will encourage the younger generation. There are always some limitations, the job of an artist is to bend them and make a way and sometimes limitations also prove to be beneficial. If you look at Iranian cinema, there are limitations, so you are not saying it directly, so you are saying it even more brilliantly. If you could say it directly, you probably wouldn’t be able to.

There is often talk about the sequel of your film 'Hazaaron Khwaishein'. You were probably working on that as well. What progress has been made in this direction?

What happens is that if you make a bad film on a film that has already been made, which has a journey, and say 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi Phir Se', then that is not justified. See, now I am not who I was. Other people are also not the same. They have all changed, their ambitions, dreams, circumstances have all changed, so until you get a great idea in your mind, you want to save that child of yours. I believe that a child should be taken care of, his memory should not be spoiled.