My time in Venice

Director and cinephile Anurag Kashyap rewinds to what it was like to be on the prestigious jury of the recently-concluded Venice film festival

My time in Venice

Director and cinephile Anurag Kashyap rewinds to what it was like to be on the prestigious jury of the recently-concluded Venice film festival

"When I first got the invitation from the Venice Film Festival to be on its jury, I was ecstatic. I got home at about 10 pm and you know how you take off your shoes and clothes and then I opened this mail. So literally, I was jumping around in my underwear for the next two hours (laughs)! Anything good happens, the first person I call up is Sudhir Mishra. Then I called up (Dev.D producer) Vikas Bahl and then, director Mani Kaul and said, "I can't believe it." I had to call only close friends who would not make it public because there was a confidentiality thing.

"Then I heard that Dev.D and Gulal would also be shown at the festival, so it was a triple whammy for me and I was so happy. Someone interviewed me and asked what I would do there. Excitedly, I said, 'I'm going to meet Ang Lee and Fatih Akin!' which got printed as 'I'm going to beat Ang Lee and Patrickin.'

"Venice was beautiful but I never got to see the city much. I had to see four-five movies a day and have constant discussions. It was two weeks of doing what I love most watching movies. The first day I met Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, whose film Baria was the festival's opening film. I met director Oliver Stone and (Hollywood producer) Harvey Weinstein. We just talked cinema. I knew this was my chance to meet all these people and obviously they wouldn't be aware of our work and our films. I took a hell of a lot of DVDs of mine, made packets and gave it to everyone (laughs).

"The whole time I was actually looking forward to meeting to meeting (German-Turkish director) Fatih Akin. It was always at the back of my mind. I love him, he's someone I admire and he's one year younger to me! First time I saw him, there was protocol. I could only meet him after jury duty. So I saw him from afar, pointed to Kalki and said, "That's the guy I want to talk to." Fatih looked at me, waved and said, "Hi, good film!" He mistook me for someone else (laughs) but I wasn't supposed to talk to him, so I just nodded.

"I waited till the closing night, met him and blurted out, 'When I was down and out and depressed in life, I saw your film Head On. That's when my life started turning around. So you saved my life.' He was so touched by it.

Then we talked for four hours and got drunk together. That was the highest point of my Venice trip. We've stayed in touch and now I'm trying to bring him to India.

"Then I met Omar Sharif, who remembered me when I was on stage with the rest of the jury and said to me, 'You're looking nice in a suit.' I've never worn a suit in my life; I'm a village boy. In our award functions, I've always gone in t-shirts. Kalki couldn't stop laughing; seeing how uncomfortable I was in a tie or jodhpuris. Omar Sharif said, 'You're such a young boy and on the jury!' I needed a photo with him for my dad. My dad has seen precisely three English movies, including Mackenna's Gold.

"I spent the most time with the jury and its chairman was Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). There's a lot to learn from the man. He's such an amicable man. They say that at jury meetings there are huge fights, but Ang Lee was the kind of man who would listen to everyone's point of view.
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And because I was the youngest, it always started with me. He would look at me and say, 'Anurag, what do you think?' I had very strong opinions and would talk so much, compared to Ang Lee, who would say things in two lines. He's a quiet, gentle man. He doesn't even know how to say no to his fans and signs every autograph.
"There's a strange culture of fans in Venice. They found out and downloaded everything about me from the Net, printed the photographs and asked me to sign it. Dev.D was the only film that had a repeat screening and it had a long standing ovation. Gulal had Italian subtitling problem, but all the English-speaking people loved it."

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