‘Agra’ Director Kanu Behl On How Indian Cinema Is Seen Globally

His first film (Titli) travelled to the Cannes International Film Festival and his recent one, ZEE5 original Despatch, had critics raving about it. Indian filmmaker Kanu Behl is now set for an Indian theatrical release for his third film - Agra - which also had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival 2023. However, the filmmaker is not too sure how Indian films are perceived outside the country. In a candid interview, Kanu Behl says he has seen a certain gaze and perception towards India. In the exclusive interview, he is quick to add that it is totally fine as it is humanly impossible to know about all cultures on earth.

Kanu Behl’s Agra goes to Indian audience after a decade

Announcing the Indian theatrical release of Agra, Behl says that Agra took nearly a decade to get to the Indian viewers. He also expresses hopes that the film would start a conversation about sexuality. It is set for a November14 release. The film is an Indo-French co-production by Saregama India Ltd, UFO Production, and O28 Films.

In this interview conducted around the digital release of Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Despatch, Behl talks about taking his films to a global audience and the struggles involved.

Bollywood actor Rahul Roy (Aashiqui) features in Agra along with Priyanka Bose, Ruhani Sharma, Vibha Chibber, Sonal Jha and Aanchal Goswami. Behl co-wrote the film with Atika Chohan. Agra bagged several awards including the Special Jury Award at MAMI 2023, the IFFM Award for Best Indie Film, and Best Film at the 2024 New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).

Kanu Behl: The global view of Indian cinema

The filmmaker shares that his experience makes him believe people have a certain image of India. “Honestly, I think outside of India, with my observations so far, people have a certain image of India. They don't really know the real India. They have a certain gaze, a certain lens on us. ((They have) Perceptions like ‘Indian films are like this’, ‘good Indian films are like that’. ‘Indian films have a certain spirituality, everyone will do good.’ It's a very specific sort of gaze. And that is not just on India. That is on everything. And it's okay. I'm not being critical. It's not even possible for one human being to truly know all cultures in all their depth. Essentially, I'm saying that it's a limited gaze.”

He then recalls the Cannes world premiere of Agra. “Even though Agra was at Cannes, I faced this a lot. ‘Is this a film from India?’, people would often ask.” The filmmaker then adds that Indian filmmakers neither need to see themselves with that lens, nor should they try to fit into those definitions.

Behl says he never makes films thinking about the global audience. “While making Titli, I was not thinking of being at Cannes. I didn't have that history. I was just making the film that I wanted to make. Even with Agra, I never thought about it.”

Kanu Behl on how his second film became his third one

The filmmaker says he realized, around 2016, that he may not be able to get the finances for Agra any time soon. With no other work at hand, he began looking for something else. It was then that the murder of Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh got his focus on the equation that crime beat journalists, politicians and criminals share in India. “I remember when I first heard about school shootings in the US, I had a similar feeling. Something about our times was strangely shifting - that sort of violence was not something we knew of earlier. The nature of that violence was very different from other forms of violence.” It was then that Kanu Behl collaborated with Ishani Banerjee and together they worked on Despatch which is headlined by Manoj Bajpayee and is currently streaming on ZEE5.

Kanu Behl on working with Manoj Bajpayee

Asked if Manoj Bajpayee was eager to work with him ever since he watched Titli, Kanu Behl says, “Yeah! That's what he told me. He is the best star you would want in a film - he comes in every day, with the same amount of curiosity and dedication. There is no ego.”

The filmmaker then adds that he is impressed by the discipline and dedication that he saw in Bajpayee. “Manoj is a very disciplined human being. From his food, to meditation, to taking care of his body and even taking his own ‘me time’, he doesn't miss out on anything at all! When with Manoj, you feel like you are with your character. That sort of presence requires a lot of discipline.

Talking about the journalists said to have inspired his online film, Behl says, “It will be a disservice. We really wanted the film to be about much more than just one story. The story is much bigger than Gauri Lankesh, or J Dey, or Mahato alone. Or, for that matter, the other 200 journalists who have been killed in the last decade. The moment we reduce it, the discussion goes into the territory of drawing parallels to the real-life characters and the stories they were working on, the scams they exposed. That is a very sensitizing way to look at the film.”

(This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.)