I wont waste my money on Gulaab Gang: Gulabi Gang filmmaker

Gulabi
Gang, a documentary on social activist Sampat Pal's posse of pink-clad
ladies, bagged the Best Film on Social Issues and the Best Non-Feature
Film Editing at the 61st National Film Awards, besides gathering many
international honours. While Sampat and the film's maker, Nishtha Jain,
are elated with the documentary's success, they expressed their
disappointment with the Madhuri Dixit-starrer 'Gulabi Gang' at the
recently held Shift Series conference in the capital. We caught up with
the director and her subject, who spoke about the positive reception
their film got and their anger over the claims of the Gulaab Gang
makers.

Agar mujhse permission lete to film achhi banti: Sampat

Sampat is miffed with the makers of Gulaab Gang for not asking for her
permission before starting on the project, which is clearly based on her
Gulabi Gang. She says, "Maine unki film dekhi hai. Woh chori se banayi hai. Woh bilkul hamari film hai."



Tell her the film in question failed to make a mark, and pat comes the reply, "Chori
ki film hai toh chori ki film jaisi hi lagegi na. Agar woh mujhse
permission lekar banate toh film achhi banti, logon ka mann lagta. Humse
poochhe bina hamari film ko pata nahi kaise banakar rakh diya, jismein
Madhuri hasia, bandook, kulhadi lekar maar rahi hai. Usmein kya khaas
hai? Woh kya sashaktikaran hai? Kya mahilaon ko chahiye ki woh bandook
utha lein? Society aisi honi chahiye ki kisi ko bandook uthane ki
zarurat na pade. Main Sweden gayi thi, wahan mujhe bole ki Sampatji
danda uthati hain aur hinsa karti hain. I asked, if I am saving a
woman's life, is that violence? Main boli, 'Aap maas machhi kha rahein
hain, woh hinsa hai. Aatma toh aatma hoti hai, chahe insaan ki ho ya
machhli ki'."

Gulaab Gang, which was scheduled for a
nationwide release on March 7, had faced trouble after a single judge
bench on March 5 stayed its release, after Sampat filed a case against
the film's makers. However, the stay was lifted a day later when the
makers agreed to run a disclaimer saying the film was not based on
Sampat's life. She adds, "Court mein mukaddama chal raha
hai. Humein muawaza chahiye. Jo court nirnaye degi, hum manenge. Par
main chahti hun ki woh iss film ko khatam karein ya mujhse permission
lein agar woh dobara film banana chahein toh."

Will she cooperate if they seek her permission? "Kyun
nahi? Yehi to meri ladai hai. Agar woh chahein toh film achhi bann
sakti hai. Agar woh permission lenge to mera poora sahyog rahega."


I won't waste my money on gulaab gang: Nishtha

Nishtha maintains that she hasn't seen Gulaab Gang, but she has been
told that the makers have stolen some scenes from her film. "I am not
going to waste my money to watch the film. I downloaded it, because it's
free, but I didn't feel like watching it. I saw the trailer, and it
looked so crappy. If you are a singer and you go to listen to somebody
who is besura, that's torture. So, it's something like that.
Being a filmmaker, it's not easy for me to watch a crappy film. If it's
entertaining, like say, 'Singh Is Kinng', I enjoy it. I am not
anti-Bollywood. I absolutely love David Dhawan. Recently, I quite liked
'Queen'. But I can't watch something which is pretending to be something
that it's definitely not," she explains.

Nishtha added that
the smugness of the makers, who didn't bother to ask, inform and meet
Pal even once, is appalling. "Sampat is a real-life inspiration. She is
right there. It didn't occur to them to meet her once? They have taken
the name, the colour, mis- represented it, and then denied doing so. I
know people who rejected the script. A friend of mine, a top
cinematographer, rejected it because he felt he would rather take up a
commercial project than do this crap," she says.Watch: Gulaab Gang trailer