Good cinema needs the support of stars: Sushen Bhatnagar

Considering Sushen’s strong roots in Lucknow, it was only natural for him to go on a nostalgia trip while here. Talking about his days here, Sushen reminisced, “I did my schooling and college from Lucknow, which were my formative years.
I used to do a lot of theatre in then and found it to be a powerful medium of self-expression. Later I thought, ‘Why not make a career out of it?’ So, I joined the Film and Television Institiute of India and passed out in 1989.Incidently, Tigmanshu would’ve been my batchmatehad I opted to join the National School of Drama, where I’d been selected as well.”
Sushen that “Monika” failed to leave any mark on the BO. Insisting that “Monika was a landmark film, Sushen replied, “When I decided to make “Monika”, there were a series of incidents like the infamous Shivani Bhatnagar case, Madhumita Gupta case etc, where the women were sucked into a political quagmire and ended up dead. I wanted to make this trend visible to the people, so that there could be some sort of awareness on the subject.”
Continuing the stream of our conversation, we drew his attention to the latest incident of airhostess Geetika Sharma’s suicide that involved a sitting Haryana minister. At which Sushen got vocal, pointing out, “This is happening everywhere. Jab ye sab ho raha hota hai toh koi ma baap mana nahi karte. Ghar baithe-baithe flight ke ticket ban jate hain, saare kaam ho jate hain, so why complain? That is why I decided to make “Monika” and Kush Bhargava produced the movie. It was a difficult film to make but I’m very satisfied with the work that Ashutosh, Divya and I put into the movie. Even Mahesh Bhatt called me and said that he hasn’t seen a more powerful potrayal of a woman since “Arth”, as was shown in my film.”

At a time when South remakes are raking in moolah on the BO and 100 crore movies fast are becoming the benchmark for success, we asked him whether there was still a market for reality-inspired films. To which Sushen replied, “See. I won’t mind an entry to 100 crore club. In face, I aspire to be in the 100 crore club. But the thing is that while I absolutely love to watch a Rohit Shetty film, I’m simply unable to make one.”
The filmmaker is also quick to defend the so-called realistic streak in

the movies, which is has become staple in the works of filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Bannerjee and even Aamir Khan. “I believe that Aamir Khan is the biggest example of someone who makes worthwhile movies. Be it “Lagaan” or “Rang De Basanti” or “Taare Zameen Par”, they all were as commercial as any other Bollywood film but had some character too,” said Sushen, adding, “Actually, stars need to support good cinema.”