Sudhir Mishra believes villainisation of film industry is ridiculous: ‘We are soft targets’

Sudhir Mishra’s next film is Afwaah starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bhumi Pednekar and Taapsee Pannu. The film has been produced by Anubhav Sinha and will explore the perils of misinformation in India these days. Recently, Afwaah’s producer Anubhav faced a lot of backlash on social media for his Bheed which looks at what happened to India’s migrant workers during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. Before that, there were calls to boycott Pathaan because of the clothes actor Deepika Padukone wore in a song Besharam Rang. Sudhir spoke about censorship in the film industry and how it has become villainised from others outside. (Also read: Sudhir Mishra: Bollywood is still obsessed with stars, when they don’t get one, they hire people who were once stars)

The veteran filmmaker started out as a screenwriter on Kundan Shah’s comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983). In 1987, he made his directorial debut with Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin which won the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director. He has also directed the films Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Dharavi and Chameli. He opened up about the dangers of censorship in India and shared his view that the film industry has become a soft target for many to criticise. He also believed that the government should have the film industry’s back.

In an interview with Mid-Day, he stated, “Outside the film industry, everyone has become a censor now. [If] I say something, everyone thinks they are allowed to bash me. That is dangerous. I find it hilarious that an industry, which changes its stories because a star said so, talks so much about censorship. It happens constantly. Some [star] says, ‘I don’t like this’, and [filmmakers] change [the script]. But then, they [also] complain about censorship.”

He continued, “The villainisation of the industry is ridiculous. We are soft targets. [Sure], a lot of people in the business are overpaid, but 90 per cent of the people are hard-working. They do their work honestly. The film industry does good — it educates and entertains the audience for two hours. I think the country treats them badly. It is the government’s job to look after the film industry, which is a public service in my opinion.”

Sudhir was the director on SonyLIV’s web series Tanaav last year and the showrunner of its other web series Jehanabad – Of Love & War starring Parambrata Chatterjee this year.