Not knowing a language is sometimes an advantage: Gyan Correa

Filmmaker Gyan Correa on being selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars and how unfamiliarity with a language helped him concentrate on the emotions of his story
It’s a proud moment for director Gyan Correa and the cast of his film The Good Road, which is India’s official entry to the Oscars in the Best Film in a Foreign Language category. But the filmmaker wants to focus on humility.“Humility was the central idea of the film. I never thought it would be appreciated this much or that it would reach this level,” he says. The Gujarati film stars Sonali Kulkarni and Ajay Gehi and features child actor Poonam Kesharsingh Rajput and Shyamji Dhana (Gyan’s ‘discovery’ and a truck driver by profession). Says Gyan, “There should be more Gujarat films in the future, not on the lines of Bollywood potboilers, but stories that take inspiration from the 1.3 billion people like Shyamji Bhai (the key character in the film), who live around us.” Excerpts from an interview with Gyan...
What sort of bottleneck did you come across while filming The Good Road?
I always believe that the narrative structure, while being old and traditional, can be treated in a modern way, like The Good Road. In a way, unfamiliarity with the Gujarati language was an advantage and at the same time, a sort of disadvantage too. The disadvantage is that you need to connect with your cast and crew on a basic fundamental level. But the advantage is, actually, words are not important because cinema is an emotional field and we are involved with emotional currents. And when one emotional current meets another, that determines the flow. When you don’t know the language, you are exclusively forced to concentrate on the emotional content of the story, like what a person is actually feeling. Not knowing a language, in a very funny way, is sometimes an advantage.
Would you look at making more Gujarati films?
I would love to make another Gujarati film. I am looking at films that can be based in Gujarat. At the same time, it will take some time for me to do that. There’s a long way to go.
What interests you in a film? Only the creative aspects or box-office numbers as well?
I am very bad at numbers. To me, capturing the emotional intelligence of people around is more important. Like when I came across Shyamji Bhai, I was touched by his emotional intelligence. He is a truck driver and his emotional capacity to think beyond is phenomenal.
According to you, how should a narrative be packaged?
Any story has to be universal, whereas the narrative has to be regional. For example, you can have humour as your story and humour is a universal subject. This can be made in an Indian or a Western way, but the core remains the same — it’s a humorous story.