Hindustan Times – Stop taking readers for granted!
I refer to an interview of filmmaker Bhavna Talwar published in Hindustan Times about her National Award win for her debut film “Dharm”. First of all, let us congratulate Ms. Talwar for her win.
Now on to the interview, which can be read at:
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleImage.aspx?article=09_09_2009_539_004&mode=undefined
(You need to register to access it)
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`If the selection was fair, I knew I stood a chance’
…Says Bhavna Talwar who becomes the first debutant director to win a National Award
Roshmila Bhattacharya roshmila.bhattacharya@hindustantimes.com
Did you know that you’re the first debutant director to win a National Award?
(Laughs) Well, that will be an inspiration in the future given that I want to approach every film I make as if it were my first. When you start setting benchmarks, you lose focus. I want to always be honest to my craft.
Did you think you stood a chance of winning?
If the selection was fair, I knew I stood a chance. Still, when I got the call on Sunday, I decided not to celebrate till the official confirmation came in. Honestly, the news has still to sink in. There was no lobbying on our part. We simply entered the film and the jury recognised its merit. I’m often told that the process is skewed and corruption rampant. I disagree. I’d forgotten what happened in the past so I wouldn’t say that the award is a vindication but it certainly brings tremendous joy.
In view of the National Award, do you think Dharm would have stood a better chance at the Oscars had it been our official entry instead of Eklavya?
I’d say it would have definitely taken us a step beyond where Eklavya did. The problem is that we’re always trying to second-guess what the goras want as opposed to our own convictions. Why don’t we just go to the Academy with a film that reflects India…Our thoughts and style of cinema…Instead of wondering what they’d want to see. May be then we would enjoy more success at the Oscars.
It took some guts to stand up against the industry big names including Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
But didn’t your open rebellion have any adverse affect on your career?
When I first decided to stand up for what I thought was right, there were many who advised me against taking such a stand. But I had to raise my voice against injustice. And since I was for the truth, they had no leg to stand on. In fact, subsequently, several people have come up to me, even on the sets, and said, “Well done!” That was heartening.
So what’s next?
Happi, I completed the shooting last year and am now into post-production. It’s a story by Pankaj Kapur about life in the city and the loneliness it can bring. When you have a moment of joy, you go through your phone book and you’re lucky if you come up with a handful of names you’d want to share the news with.
Hundreds of us, chasing after success, find that we’ve had no time to develop relationships. That’s the reason why most people you see in cities across the world, have no joy in their eyes and no smiles on their faces. It’s a sweet, simple Chaplinesque comedy with Pankaj in the lead. It should release early next year.
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In the fervor of winning the award, one cannot really fault Ms. Talwar for her ignorance of the fact that she really is not the first debutant filmmaker to win the National Award. But one comes to expect more from a widely read publication like Hindustan Times. For such a big newspaper, some basic research would have avoided the embarrassment of making such a tall, ignorant claim.
Perhaps records of Shyam Benegal winning the National Award for his debut narrative feature “Ankur” and Adoor Gopalakrishnan winning for his debut narrative feature “Swayamwaram” have been erased from National Awards history.
Even if the above was indeed ignored, how could Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s win for “Frozen” in the category “Best First Film by a Director” be ignored? Or was the newspaper unaware of this category itself? Or does this award not qualify as a National Award?
It sickens me that our newspapers take us, their readers for granted. Why is it that we have to suck up any crap they choose to throw at us? Here’s calling for some credibility in the news media!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Shit this is extremely ridiculous.Looks like a poor PR exercise for Dharm and Bhavana Talwar rather than professional journalism.How could HT allow this?????????
Its another example of how media can be so lopsided and completely clueless.When would people like Roshmila act with more maturity?
To bhayyiye kya ho gaya? Koyi tere sir pe kisi ne dukhkhon ki baarish kar di? Ya phir museebaton ka pahaar toot paraa? Uski film ko dekh – idhar udhar ki mat haank.
AG had won Golden Lotus Award for best director for his first feature film Swayamvaram.
Aparna Sen won it for best director for her first feature film 36 Chowringhee Lane.
Shyam Benegal’s point is a tricky one because he had not won Golden lotus for the direction but his debut feature film Ankur had won the “Silver Lotus”, which is called as award for second best film. Mrinal Sen’s film had won Golden lotus for that year.
I may be wrong.
And perhaps there will be 1-3 more names who won Golden lotus as best director for their debut feature films.
Dharm’s director is certainly not the first one.
The interviewer is not even going into specifics of Silver Lotus or Golden Lotus. She is straightaway claiming that it is the first time a debutant has won a national award itself!
correction..debutante director.
Sorry, Maybe I was not clear in first comment.
Shyam Babu did not win the Golden Lotus as debutant director.
Rather his first feature film, Ankur had won the Silver lotus, i.e second best film.
and National awards are given to the films made in all the scheduled languages so such claim as made by the HT journalist is always a risky one. Even if she meant to quote the example of Hindi language only, Aparna Sen’s film was multilingual (Hindi, English and Bengali).
its high time these pen-pushers did a bit of research before putting their foot in theor mouths. it would be great if someone could forward this link to both the interviewer & interviewee, so that they can tender their apologies, which we can then publish here… so much for damage repair!
There are many instances ,where such mistakes happen,Guess it had to do with quality of journalism, film journalism is the last option for journalists.
To me it looks more like a misprint.! It must have been “first time female debutant director”.
Srijith, the interviewer would have been incorrect on that front too.
A little research by Ratnakar showed that we have 2 female debutant directors who have won the National Award before:
Pamela Rooks(1993)- Ms. Beatty’s Children-English
Bindu Chakraborty(1997)-Rag Birag-Assamese
Vijay: It’s Bidyut Chakraborty, who is very much a male, and not Bindu Chakraborty..
While the debate here has rightfully pointed out the lack of basic research by media persons these days (leaving aside the lack of elementary knowledge in many cases), I think all the comments here should also be replicated in the newspaper’s website too, through the comments column below the said interview, so that the reporter concerned is made aware of her ignorance, deliberate or not.
Here are some facts:
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First, Bhavna never won the 2007 Best first film award in the first place. It was Shivaji. Bhavna the Nargis Dutt award for National Integration
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Second, there is a category for best first film called the Indira Gandhi Award. Here are the winners since the inception of the award: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi_Award_for_Best_First_Film_of_a_Director. So how can she be the “first debutant director to win a National Award”.I fail to understand.
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Third, if Romila wanted to say that Bhavna was the first debutant director to win the Nargis Dutt National Integration award and it was a typo on her behalf to have mentioned just the debutant director, She still got it wrong. Chandrapraksh Dwivedi’s Pinjar won the award in the Nargis Dutt National Integration category and that was his debut film too. And so did Ketan Mehta with his Debut in Gujrati film Bhavni Bhavai. Here is the list of winners for the Nargis Dutt Award
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nargis_Dutt_Award_for_Best_Feature_Film_on_National_Integration
Also some news channels going on about this being Prakash Raj’s first award, fuck its not. Its his first National Award as an Actor, he had earlier won the Best Supporting Actor for Iruvar( an amazing performance), and also a Special Jury mention for Kannathil Muttamithal.
he also won it for anthapuram
Also don’t understand this “South actors beat the Khans” nonsense, WTF is this. National Awards are meant for Indian Cinema, period.
“Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration”
which is given to Dharm (that is debut film of its director) was given earlier to MS Sathyu’s debut feature film, Garam Hawa and Ketan Mehta’s debut feature film Bhavni Bhavai.
So Dharm is definitely not the first ever film (of a debutant/e director) to get this award in this particular category.
…
Shivajee has won the “Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director”
and it has been given in the past to following filmmakers (Hindi films only)
Ashok Ahuja – Adharshila
Kundan Shah – Jaane bhee do yaron
Romesh Sharma – New Delhi Times
Sudhir Mishra – Ye Manjil wo to nahin
Nabyendu ghosh – Trishagni
Pradeep Sarkar – Parineeta
Kabir Khan – Kabul Express
…
So Not Bhavna Talwar but Shivajee Chandrabhushan has got the award – “Award for Best First Film of a Director”.
M.S.Sathyu’s debut was Chyornaya Gora
Neeraj,
I am not sure about its genre. was it a full length feature film? It could be a short children film because He used to make documentaries and children films (short) before he made Garam Hawa. DD had shown one children film of MS Sathyu, this film had no dialogues. he had made it in mid 60s, around the same time when he was assisting Chetan Anand on Haqiqat.
Normally Garam Hawa is treated as his first full length feature film.
I dont know on IMDB, it says so.Chyornaya Gora is a Russian film. You may be right though.
I have just checked at IMDB. Chyornaya Gora is given the year 1971.
Certainly their data report on MS Sathyu is not complete, they have not included names of his other works done before 1971. He was making Children films and Documentaries since mid 60s. The Children film I am mentioning had title motu patlu or chotu lambu or something like that.
…
I guess he lives in Bangalore or somewhere in Karnataka. Whenever he or his wife Shama Zaidi will write a book then people will correct the records at IMDB and Wikipedia type forums.
As far as Indian filmmakers and artists are concerned so many times it is observed that IMDB data collection is either not complete or it is incorrect.
frankly speaking…….film journalism in national dailies is at the pits. It has been reduced to affairs, parties, catfights and 100 crore deals and other such shit.
This article seems more of a PR exercise…..
Movie Journalism has now become like Stardust, which heroine is gonna wear the bikini for the first time? Who is sleeping with whom? Who is going out with whom? Who had a holiday in Timbuktoo? And movies too are promoted on “How the heroine wore a 2 piece” or “How 200 cr was blown up for shooting a song in Antarctica”. No wonder 90% of the movies, don’t live up to the hype.
a few months back i attended a seminar where Dale Bhagwagar (publicist to Hrithik, Shilpa Shetty etc) spoke on the very nexus between the PR machinery and the film media and how he initially started of as an idealist but later embraced the notorious but highly rewarding culture of yellow journalism.
Personally i dont give a fuck if you fill ur papers with chaddi baniyan stories of overrated stars and wannabe starlets but if u r gonna rob some deserving guy of his credit and due…..u deserve a slap on ur face….
Ha ha.. ‘Adrenaline Journalism’ , caught in the race of who is first in getting up the interview published, basic tenets of research is forgotten/overlooked.
Ram actually its not just movies, i see that slipshod, lazy reporting in almost every field, be it sports,politics, economics or current affairs. Almost 80% of the reporters don’t even bother to do their basic homework, before reporting something.
This is what I wrote to her and to HT. Let’s hope they reply.
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to roshmila.bhattacharya@hindustantimes.com
cc feedback@hindustantimes.com
date Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 3:09 PM
subject Another case of immature journalism
mailed-by gmail.com
hide details 3:09 PM (0 minutes ago)
Roshmila,
This email is a reply with respect to your article on Hindustan Times dated 9th September 2009.
In your interview with Bhavna Talwar, you asked her the following question.
“Did you know that you’re the first debutant director to win a National Award?”
I am afraid to point out that your statement is completely incorrect. Bhavna Talwar is not the first debutant to win a National Award. First of all let me point out to you that Bhavna Talwar did not win the Best First Film award also known as Indira Gandhi Award. It went to Shivajee Chandrabushan for making Frozen.
Dharm, the movie that Bhavna Talwar made won Nargis Dutt Award for National Integration. Even then Bhavna Talwar is not the first person to win this award as a debutant. Chandraprakash Dwivedi who made Pinjar is the first person to win the award as a debutant in 2004. And if you consider regional movies, then Ketan Mehta won this first for his Gujrati movie Bhavni Bhavai in 1981.
And if you wanted to imply that she is the first woman to win a National Award as a debutant, even then you’re wrong. Aparna Sen won the Best Director award for her debut film 36 Chowringee Lane in 1982.
I am surprised to see such sloppy journalism. I am even more surprised to see Hindustan Times allowing it to be printed.
I wonder when will media act maturely and do the basic homework required before an interview.
Regards,
Aniruddha
fitting response Aniruddha……that’s the way to go…..
vijay – three cheers for *belling the cat*; this is not the first time, and this definitely ain’t gonna be the last.
The link to the HT article doesnt seem to be working. This one worked for me, although you still have to register and log in:
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleImage.aspx?article=09_09_2009_539_004&mode=1
@Aniruddha
… much deserved – “knock knock, who’s there, Conscience” move to the news media, in this case HT… deserevedly every news media needs to be brought into notice that yellow journalism with half knowledge, 1/4th mythological creations and 1/4th sensationalism is sickening… be it cinema sports or national news… sincerely hoping that this excercise does not go in vain … specially considering that on a wider world, Media and News realise that they are the eyes mouth and ears of people, they better act responsible…
Guys, you should have heard the pain in Shivajee’s voice when he called me up early yesterday. I had just got into my office at 9 am when he called up speaking about this shocking article. I have access to HT in office and read the article. This was so awful and just simply not done.
Only the day before, we saw the whole media ignoring all non – bollywood films and now this. OK, TV is governed by TRPs and so they come out with trash but responsible print media??
Also, upto now I have not seen any regrettal from the HT guys at all!!!
Great point made in the article. Kudos.
She talks of not lobbying for the national award! Isn’t she married to that powerful Shukla guy who is a fixer in the ruling party. Methinks she doth protest too much!
Bhavna is married to Sheetal Talwar, a producer. And if by the Shukla guy, you mean “Rajeev Shukla”, his wife is Anuradha Prasad (of BAG films) – the sister of BJP MP/spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.