All eyes are on a director when their first film is poised to release. But Malayali director Arun Gopy, who led Ramaleela with the controversial talent Dileep as its lead actor, didn’t anticipate the avalanche of attention that his political thriller would receive.
So what’s the back story?
The star of Ramaleela is Dileep, the disgraced Malayalam star who is out on bail now after being accused of playing a role in orchestrating a sexual assault case involving his colleague. His alleged involvement was unearthed during the film’s post-production, a phase described by the director as torturous and “like walking on thorns”. Chaos followed.
The release of Gopy’s Ramaleela in Kerala in the last week of September was punctuated by calls for boycott of the Dileep-led film, a statewide outrage and sparked debates on whether supporting the actors’ films was symbolic of siding with an alleged criminal and potentially alienating a sexual assault survivor.
But Gopy, as he gets ready to release Ramaleela in the UAE on October 26th, condemned those calls for boycott in Kerala, labelling it as “fascism”.
“A person has a right to decide what they want to see and what they don’t want to watch. I believe in democracy. When I go to a restaurant, I have the choice to select whether I want to eat a chicken or mutton biryani,” said Gopy in an interview with Gulf News tabloid! in Dubai, downplaying the gravity of the alleged crime.
Excerpts from our interview with the director of Ramaleela, who always referred to Dileep’s criminal case as “the issue or crisis”, follow:
Do you think it’s fair that your film suffered because its lead actor Dileep was embroiled in a criminal conspiracy case?
I often joke to my friends that it’s just me and Bollywood director Raj Kumar Hirani who has faced such issues. Hirani faced problems when he made the film Munnabhai MBBS with Sanjay Dutt [the Bollywood actor who was jailed and released for his role in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts]. But then Hirani’s future skyrocketed. I console myself by making that joke. But the fact is that it was a big crisis. Generally, if there is an issue around a film you know what its solution is and how it can be resolved. But our crisis was of a different nature. It felt as if a natural disaster like a tsunami had hit us. All you can do is watch it as silent spectators but you cannot block it. But the film ran in the theatres successfully in India and perhaps it is because Kerala as a state perceives matters differently than the way the media perceives it. The media is in the habit of sensationalising controversial parts of a case, but maybe because Keralites are educated and progressive, they have crystal clear views on the topic.
But wasn’t your film hijacked by Dileep’s case?
Every film has its fate and destiny charted out. Perhaps, the destiny of this film was the course it took. Journalists now seek me out because of this issue, otherwise this would have been just another Dileep’s new films. As a filmmaker, we have struggled a lot. But the bottom line remains: have the audiences accepted the film or not? In our case, we have earned more than [Rs500 million, or Dh28.16 million] in Kerala. Some believe it was the sympathy or the curiosity wave around the actor, but those reasons only remain valid for the first ten minutes of the film. If the movie isn’t good, then nobody will sit through it. Many said that families won’t head to the theatres, but large groups still made it to the cinemas.
Did you feel like a soft-target here?
Every media house in Kerala sought my interview, but they didn’t want to know about Arun Gopy or the film, they just wanted to create some controversy. There are many people who believe that Dileep committed the crime and they have their own reasons for believing so. That is their take. But I have thousands of reasons why I believe that he hasn’t done it. Imagine this scenario, if a close friend of mine is accused of a certain act, I will be able to gauge if he’s capable of that based on my relationship with him. I am convinced that Dileep, as a person, will not do it and he isn’t capable of it. As a human being, he is a very nice personality. He is an actor and an artist, and no artist can think of such cruelty. Had he committed such a cruel crime, then he couldn’t have played Ramanunni’s character with such honesty. When he was undergoing the trauma, we were in the post-production of Ramaleela, we interacted with him daily and it was clear to us that he isn’t capable of it. We have that trust in him. That is why, when we speak to the media we don’t feel guilty.
Many called for the boycott of this film in Kerala, what were your thoughts?
Ask those people who boycotted the movie about their favourite film and they may say Roman Polanski’s The Pianist. Even with the allegations [the fugitive Oscar-winning director who is convicted of raping a minor.], they still describe it as a wonderful movie. They are same guys who are calling for the Ramaleela boycott. I don’t understand that. Their second theory is that the profits of the film, if they watch his film, will go to Dileep. Indebted businessman Vijay Mallya allegedly stole Rs90 billion, but nobody is boycotting his beer. I am not criticising anyone, I am just sharing my thoughts. Our five years of hard work to make a film doesn’t count when a person on his or her laptop in the comfort of their home tweet about Ramaleela boycott. Can they give me back my five years of my life or the Rs150 million investment? Banning Ramaleela is fascism. We shouldn’t dictate what the audiences should watch.
Tell us about Ramaleela, the film?
The central character of the film is Ramanunni and it is his story. He comes from a political background and he is an MLA in Kerala. Naturally, the landscape of Kerala politics and its complicated state is reflected. Ramanunni is a straightforward guy and the film deals with the problems that arise in his life due to his direct nature. The politics that has been showcased in this film, is not the politics of Kerala, though. It’s a commentary on the system of politics that exists in kerala since the birth of democracy.
