I’ll make the film I want: Ajay Kanchan

The name Ajay Kanchan might not be very familiar to those who’ve not keenly followed the DT brinjal debate (he made the short film, Poison On The Platter). But in days to come, Delhi will get talking about him. For, his long association with Bollywood’s mercurial filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt has resulted in him getting the director’s chair for Bhatt’s latest passion – the much talked about film on slain JNU student leader Chandrashekhar Prasad, which is being produced by AMU alumnus and Dubai-based businessman Irfan Izhar.
Ask him why he thinks he got this project, and he says, “I guess it’s my capacity to go through and sift enormous amounts of research work, to zero in on the most important facets of a story,” he says. So, has he begun to do that? “Of course, just a couple of days ago, I went to JNU, to meet students,” he says. “Initially, the air was ‘thick’,” he says, his fingers making a quote-unquote mark. “But as things progressed, everyone loosened up. I told them that I have not taken up this project with any preconceived notions. I told them that as of now, I am a blackboard – I look like one too!” he jests, “and that everything they know about Chandu is to be written on that blackboard. I will listen to everyone, but I will make the film I want to make,” he’s clear on this point. “I met a cross-section of students, not a particular political group, or peer group,” he clears another point.
Ajay says he’s amazed by the kind of strong reactions that the name of Chandu has evoked, ever since he’s begun talking to people for his research. “One of them told me, ‘Chandu jaisa na koi hua hai, na koi hoga,’ and when I repeated this line to someone else, I was told, ‘Oh, really?’ So, either way, Chandu’s ideology has influenced many, and the man is all about his ideologies only. So, that’s something I’d be bringing to the fore.”
Ajay is concentrating on the script right now, and has set a deadline for August. “It’s after that that we’ll look for locations, and see how to go about the filming. But right now, I have people to meet, more students to talk to, and I’m willing to spend as much time as necessary with people who knew Chandrashekhar up close, for, they are the people who will infuse life into the film – giving us those inputs about Chandu that the world does not know.”
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