The first day of the ongoing Hay Festival 2013 saw a witty session titled From Words to Screen by Bollywood star Rahul Bose, who is well known as a social activist and vocal against all kinds of discrimination. The segment was followed by a lively “question and answer” round.
The auditorium of Bangla Academy became houseful with audience, curious to know more of his visions on literature, art, cinema and mostly him, as a multifaceted talent.
Shedding light on the title of the session, Bose explained how “words” evolve into visual medium. From his personal experience, he described ways in which screenplay changes: starting from the writer’s table, travelling to the tables of director, set designer, light designer, music director, cinematographer and more, and ending up at the editing table.
While talking about films based on stories or novels, Bose, who came to the limelight with the film English August based on Upamanyu Chatterjee’s novel of the same name, said: “I read the novel first.” He said that, sometimes visual medium fails to portray the details of a character and he prefers to rely on the novels, not to miss anything.
The discussion reached a pinnacle, when he shared his views on the relationship between actor and the language of the film. Bose has so far acted in movies in five different languages and on the basis of such an illustrious experience, he said: “If you are not comfortable with the language you are speaking in the movie, your body language will change.” He demonstrated some hilarious body movements recalling his own experience while he was shooting for a foreign language film.
Bose, who has also created a niche for himself as a director said that his upcoming directorial project features six languages.
Replying to a question on how he distinguishes “art” and “commercial” films, he said: “I don’t differentiate films on these terms. For me, there are two categories of films: predictable and non-predictable.” According to the film persona, usually, the “commercial” films follow certain formulas and people can predict what happens next. And then there is the type of films which have different construction and thus becomes unpredictable.
Bose goes with movies which “have to be bloody interesting,” and he considers having a message in the film as a “bonus.”
“Don’t overload your film with messages,” said the witty actor.
A passionate promoter for social justice, Rahul is determined to make a difference by highlighting injustice rather than focusing on the sacrifices he made. “I went to Andaman and Nicobar Islands 23 times after Tsunami, but I never took photographs with the victims,” said Bose.
As a result of this work, Bose launched the Andaman and Nicobar Scholarship initiative through his NGO, The Foundation. The scholarship program provides education for the underprivileged children from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. “We educate children with the idea behind India - secular and inclusive.”
As part of his ventures as a global ambassador of Oxfam, he is to participate in a charity based fund raising trail walk in Mumbai this month. Bose is all set to tackle 100km of Indian outback within 48 hours, as a team of four, to make a difference by raising funds to help overcome the injustices of poverty in India.