The Creators | Kabeer Khurana

Sumantra Sen, Class of 2021

The Creators is a series of profiles of Ashokans who are actively involved in different creative fields including, but in no way limited to, music, photography, creative writing, and visual or performing arts.

This time as part of The Creators series we interviewed Kabeer Khurana — an accomplished filmmaker from the Undergraduate Batch of 2020. Kabeer has directed films — Project Oneness, Strings, Religion for Dummies, Ism — and has won multiple awards along the way. He is on his way to releasing two new films Karma Café and Dali.

Kabeer is a filmmaker with strong, perhaps even controversial, opinions and a willingness to stand up for them. He focuses on making films that revolve around human interactions and relationships while making the film feel, in its texture and visuals, fantastic and magical instead of being rooted in reality. Here’s our interview:

When did you realise you wanted to be a filmmaker and what have your past experiences been like?

I was around 6 when I first started making short animation films that were 10–15 seconds long. We drew frame by frame and compiled them together. Around 5th grade I started making film strips in school. We charged a rupee per film and screened them against transparent water bottles, such that the individual panel images would get magnified by the refraction of water.

Then, in the 11th grade I started an organisation called Artyculate, that was formed with the aim of inspiring social action through creative expression. It was then that I made a film called Project Oneness which was my first professional live-action film. The film was centered around the idea of universality of human emotions and questioned the basis of discrimination.

It was in the following film called Ism, where I learned most of the technicalities of filmmaking such as lighting and sound. I then directed a film called Strings, it was a musical that I was inspired to make after I watched La La Land. Both films won mentions in international film festivals in Brazil and Venice.

So we talked about the past, but what about the future? What are your future plans?

After Strings, I directed this short film called Religion for Dummies which got me a bunch of awards and helped me get funding for further films. One of the films that I have made after that is Karma Café, which is still in the pipeline for release. It stars Amole Gupte (of Taare Zameen Par fame) and Nakul Sahdev (from Gully Boy). I am also making a film called Dali produced by Humaramovie, which is a short musical biography on Salvador Dali. It is a live-action combined animation film that has been shot against chroma.

What are your favourite films? Who are your favourite directors?

My favourite films would include Spike Jonze’s Her and Michael Hazanavicius’s The Artist. I love La La Land and Whiplash as well. Also Truffaut’s 400 Blows. So I like films that give you a slice of life — films that explore the complexities of human relationships and emotions through a temporal and spacial texture work of a kind. Films that leave you with an emotion and an experience, apart from something to think about.

As for favourite directors, ones that come to mind now would be Tim Burton, Wes Anderson and Steven Spielberg. What I like about all of them is that they have a distinct visual style that permeates through their body of work. So when you watch a Wes Anderson or Tim Burton film, you know it’s them.

All of your films that you talked about are short films; do you specifically like the short film genre? Do you have any favourite short films?

I specifically enjoy making short films for two reasons. One, short films help you grow and find your style. They help you explore new ways to develop your style and hence find out who you are and what are your deepest emotions. Second, in larger bigger budget films, your expression is limited. There is a lot of money involved and you can’t afford to experiment too much, therefore restricting yourself primarily to formula. In short films, you can explore a lot more, and afford to fail.

As for favourite short films, I love this film called Balance directed by the Lauenstein brothers, A Szel by Varga Csaba, Repete by Michaela Pavlatova, Scorsese’ The Big Shave and Doodlebug by Nolan. I also love most of the Pixar short films.

What are the things that you think of when making a film? Are there any specific things you always do? Take us through your creative process.

One common string that runs through Religion for Dummies, Karma Café and Dali is that there is one magical element in each of the films. I pay a lot of attention to my visuals. For me, the treatment of the film, i.e. the colours, the texture, the patterns, the feel of the film, is as important as the story and the narrative. Before starting shooting a film we make a lot of concept art and sketches to explore how things should look. I am always looking at using new techniques and styles in a film. Dali, personally, is a very ambitious project as it uses anamorphic sculptures. We are also using chronophotography as a technique (image multiplication) and it’s the first time this is being used in Indian cinema. So I’m always trying to do something new in terms of technique. In Religion for Dummies, we hand-painted each frame which was a painstaking process, but nonetheless, very interesting and rewarding.

Do you think there is a new wave of cinema coming to India composed of new directors with new ideas?

I really feel Indian cinema lacks imagination because in some ways we don’t want to move beyond objective shots or over the shoulder shots. There are different styles and techniques that one can use to communicate the very same emotion, which can probably create greater impact in a scene. Why stick to conventionality in terms of the way we tell our stories? Animation, as a medium, if used responsibly can really add great impact to a scene. For example, the way it was used in Waltz with Bashir was fantastic and really added impact, without losing the element of realism that live action brings to the table.

There are a lot of good filmmakers emerging in India now who really understand how to exploit technology and the limitless possibilities of VFX. But most filmmakers still don’t think through their colour pallets, cinematic identity and design pallet. So, in that sense, India is still conservative. There’s a lot more to be done.

What advice would you give to budding filmmakers?

For budding filmmakers, I would say, focus on your writing and not so much on the craft of filmmaking in the beginning. Cinema is about writing, it is about storytelling. Further, there is a difference between writing stories and writing academic papers. Academic papers can get political and they are usually about a larger scheme of things. Films are usually human stories and intimate emotions in the foreground, with the politics playing in the background. Therefore, writing for a cinema is about two things: about your ability to understand human begins (understanding psychology, in academic terms) and the other is about engaging an audience. And also, of course, it is not only the writing. It is important to not only write well but also have the entire film playing in your head — the ability to visualize. Again, I personally like to do a lot of pre-production artwork, that is because my style of thinking is more oriented to animation (I’m not fond of realism anyway).

How do you think films relate to other media say a novel or a comic if you take a comparative approach?

When you’re writing a script, you’re writing for yourself as the filmmaker. The audience will never probably read the script. Therefore, when you are writing the action (things apart from the dialogue), it does not necessarily have to be necessarily grammatically perfect or erudite as long as it communicates what has to show up in the final product of the film. It can be really badly written but your film could still be great. Film writing is not about how articulate you are, but it is about how you communicate your sentiment and tell your story on screen through visuals. Screenplays are never for someone to read it, but for someone to watch once the entire product has been pieced together. That’s where the difference between writing prose and writing for screen comes in. In fact, I also think that writing for film is closer to making music or sketching (storyboards) than it is to academia.

What do you think of the movie culture in Ashoka? How does this place interest you in terms of filmmaking?

A strong filmmaking culture on campus does not really exist at this point, although, I believe, there are some productions in the pipeline. When Navrang was started, it was about making films, but eventually, their primary focus became film critique amongst other things, which is really good in a way as it is important to understand the different kinds of films out there. However, I also do feel that while understanding the art of cinema is important, the craft of cinema is equally important and, as Tarantino said, the only way to learn about filmmaking is to make a film a week. While analysing films is important, making films is as important. I feel critiquing films is important from a socio-political angle, but it is also important to critique films from an artistic point of view which, in my personal honest opinion, is missing here.

As for this space, I think it’s a great place to be for a filmmaker — there are a lot of ideas discussed here which is very enriching. But again, many times, we get into banters or long arguments and I feel at those moments there is no knowledge that is created. I’m someone who believes that there are no truths in this world, but only perspectives. So I think instead of focussing on winning arguments we should focus on developing new ideas.

So final question and to end on a lighter note, what are some critically appraised films that you don’t like as much and what are some films that you find are underrated?

I’d say there are lots of films I have not understood. For example, Tarkovsky’s film, Andrei Rublev, is one I haven’t understood. I don’t understand many of Quentin Tarantino’s films. Personally, I like films that capture the more beautiful and less dark sides of humanity that leave you with an emotion once you are done watching. As for underrated films, I think Masaan is an underrated film. There is also this film called A Billion Colour Story which is a brilliant film. I think that film should be on top in terms of underrated films.

The interviewer is a Staff-Writer for the Arts and Culture section of The Edict.