There is always a reflection of your life in your stories: Jahnu Barua
The story first appeared in The Times of Bennett a student-led initiative of the Times School of Media
By Saanya Borah.
Jahnu Barua , the well-known Indian film director, talks about his upcoming film on the Ahom military commander, Lachit Borphukan. The movie will also focus on the famous Battle of Saraighat . It will depict the naval battle fought in 1671 between the Mughal empire and the Ahom kingdom. It’s on how the small number of Ahom soldiers were able to defeat the huge Mughal army and not letting Mughals invade the state. Though in pre-production phase, Barua is looking forward to work on this project. About the film, he said ‘It is important for people to remember our heroes who did everything to protect our homeland from the invaders.’
Coming from a lower middle class family, he had faced financial struggles. He went for his classes during the evening and worked during the day to cover for his expenses. He credits his family for supporting him as much as they could. His interest in films started at a Film Festival organized by the Guwahati Cinema Club while he doing his BSc where he got to see classic international films. He was also inspired by the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, to make movies and tell stories. He felt that it was a very artistic and aesthetic medium of cinema to communicate with the audience. He said, ‘Though cinema looks easy to people, it’s not. It is one of the hardest fields to tell a story.’
All his movies mostly revolve around the aspect of humanity. He brings simplicity in his stories so as to connect with his audience as it is very important to him. He said, ‘Somewhere, there is always a reflection of your life in your stories.’ The audience can find the special touches in his films as he is emotionally involved while making them. Belonging from a village background, he always wanted to share rural stories in which he succeeded when he directed his social genre feature film ‘Halodhia Soraiye Bau Dhaan Khai’ which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1988. He believes that one can learn a lot about life in a village than living in a city.
On his views on Assamese films, he believes that though the movies are given importance, they need to reach a wider audience to be recognized. A film becomes popular because of the audience. The number of people watching Assamese films are less while number of people watching other regional films are more. Despite of language differences, movies get attention when their stories touch the hearts of the people.
He said that film makers are chasing after commercial movies so much that they have lost the touch of good quality stories. Audience too just like to chase the stars irrespective of the story with spoils the idea of storytelling through movies. He believes that there are many good stories to be found in the rural areas but no one in interested in telling them.
Barua has been bestowed the Padma Shri in 2003 and Padma Bhushan in 2015 for his work. He said that he though receiving awards makes him happy, he never prefers to run after them as he believes it will affect his work. He considers himself as a storyteller and focuses on making films but along the way if he does get recognition or awards, they make him feel that he has done something good.
His message to the young people who aspire to be directors is to have faith in themselves be prepare as life is full of hard work. ‘You will never get satisfaction if you don’t do hard work. So have faith in yourselves and you will succed.’
(The report has been written by Saanya Borah, a first year student of BA ( Journalism and Mass Communication) of The Times School of Media)
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By Saanya Borah.
Coming from a lower middle class family, he had faced financial struggles. He went for his classes during the evening and worked during the day to cover for his expenses. He credits his family for supporting him as much as they could. His interest in films started at a Film Festival organized by the Guwahati Cinema Club while he doing his BSc where he got to see classic international films. He was also inspired by the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, to make movies and tell stories. He felt that it was a very artistic and aesthetic medium of cinema to communicate with the audience. He said, ‘Though cinema looks easy to people, it’s not. It is one of the hardest fields to tell a story.’
All his movies mostly revolve around the aspect of humanity. He brings simplicity in his stories so as to connect with his audience as it is very important to him. He said, ‘Somewhere, there is always a reflection of your life in your stories.’ The audience can find the special touches in his films as he is emotionally involved while making them. Belonging from a village background, he always wanted to share rural stories in which he succeeded when he directed his social genre feature film ‘Halodhia Soraiye Bau Dhaan Khai’ which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1988. He believes that one can learn a lot about life in a village than living in a city.
On his views on Assamese films, he believes that though the movies are given importance, they need to reach a wider audience to be recognized. A film becomes popular because of the audience. The number of people watching Assamese films are less while number of people watching other regional films are more. Despite of language differences, movies get attention when their stories touch the hearts of the people.
He said that film makers are chasing after commercial movies so much that they have lost the touch of good quality stories. Audience too just like to chase the stars irrespective of the story with spoils the idea of storytelling through movies. He believes that there are many good stories to be found in the rural areas but no one in interested in telling them.
Barua has been bestowed the Padma Shri in 2003 and Padma Bhushan in 2015 for his work. He said that he though receiving awards makes him happy, he never prefers to run after them as he believes it will affect his work. He considers himself as a storyteller and focuses on making films but along the way if he does get recognition or awards, they make him feel that he has done something good.
His message to the young people who aspire to be directors is to have faith in themselves be prepare as life is full of hard work. ‘You will never get satisfaction if you don’t do hard work. So have faith in yourselves and you will succed.’
(The report has been written by Saanya Borah, a first year student of BA ( Journalism and Mass Communication) of The Times School of Media)
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