Noting that the news cycle has moved onto other pressing issues, director Kabir Khan says his short film Setara is an attempt to remind people of Afghan women’s plight
Kabir Khan. Pic/Shadab Khan
In a recent interview, director Chaitanya Tamhane told mid-day that stars and filmmakers should make one film for the kitchen and one for the soul. Filmmaker Kabir Khan has been living that motto from the start of his career. In his filmography, there are blockbusters like Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), as well as hard-hitting offerings like Kabul Express (2006) and New York (2009). “It’s not a conscious thing, I just go with what my heart tells me to do. I’ve never been, thankfully, a victim of this race of being commercially viable. I’ve never done that.I’ve been fortunate, despite that, I’ve had some really big commercial successes. Which is important in this industry, it keeps you relevant, it keeps you going, it allows you to do anything you want. I’ve often said that, for me, my success is not about how much money my films earn me, or the producers and stuff. For me, my success is, till the day I can select what I want to do, and nobody’s telling me, no, don’t do this, do this. The day I’m told to do something according to a brief, then I know that I’m okay servicing a script, and I’m just doing it, maybe for money, maybe to just keep myself busy, maybe to pay for the rent of the office. But up till now, I’m fortunate that I’ve just been able to pick up the films that have really struck a chord with me. Because it’s very important, you have to have that passion for a project for a year and a half. If you pick it up for the wrong reasons, it won’t last you more than a month. By the time you’re on set, you’ll say, “Why am I doing this?,” says the director. His search for such stories led him to My Melbourne. The anthology, which sees four directors – Imtiaz Ali, Rima Das, Onir and Khan – unite to tell short stories, is releasing in India on March 14. Khan’s short Setara tells the true story of a 15-year-old Afghan girl rebuilding her life in Melbourne after fleeing the Taliban, and finding a sense of belonging through cricket. A chance encounter brought this subject to the director. “This is, of course, something completely out of the blue. Mitu called me and said, I’m trying to do this anthology, and will you come? And first it began as, will you just mentor one director. And then there are different subjects, there’s the gender aspect, there’s the disability aspect, there’s the LGBTQ aspect, there’s race relations. She asked me – will you do the race relations? I said, yeah. And we kept looking for stories, and actually, because all the stories, all four of them are picked up from real life. She kept sending me a few that some of the writers are developing, and nothing was really striking the chord. It was decided I’ll only do this if I really get excited about the story. And then this thing started because my film, 83, was getting the award at the Melbourne Festival, so me and Kapil sir travelled there. At one of those receptions, I saw these four, five, girls in their hijabs coming in really excited. I said, why are these girls so excited to see Kapil sir? And then I realised they were members of the Afghan women’s cricket team, which had to run away from there. And that’s how it started. This is such a fascinating story that Melbourne has played host to this team after they ran away from Afghanistan. And it immediately struck a chord with me because I think it brought so many things that I feel for together. Afghanistan is a place I’ve always felt for. I love the underdog stories. We found this 16-year-old cricketer called Setara. See, it’s not 83 when I’m taking a year to train the boys. It’s a five-day short film. And I saw her bowling. I said, oh my God, it’s unbelievable. She’s so thin and tiny. And when she bowls on the field, it’s magic. We workshopped her for a bit. She has such a beautiful face. Her face tells a story. I said, you don’t need to act, you can be yourself. I’ll tell you when I want you to do something. Otherwise, you just be yourself. She was fabulous. Better than a lot of trained actors I’ve worked with. So to the point, subtle, never getting overwhelmed by the cameras.” As we talk about Afghanistan, we recollect Meryl Streep’s statement about cats having more freedom than women in Kabul. Having studied the country since his days as a documentary filmmaker, Khan rues the current situation. “The Americans were bullshitting the world when they were saying, so-called good Taliban, bad Taliban. What the hell? There’s no good cancer, bad cancer. Cancer is cancer. It’s going to get to you, right? So when they were basically trying to pull this fast one on the world because they wanted to somehow not be held responsible for just overnight upping and leaving this country after 25 years of being there and leaving it to people who want to do this. So they made us believe that this is Taliban 2.0. Initially, the Taliban played along with them because I’m sure they were paid money. And, but, now you see, they’re worse than the first version. What girls like Setara are going through, they’re so similar in the way these girls are having to abandon their… You know why it’s sadder, see, Taliban – the first version came on the heels of 25 years of unbroken civil war. So, they were going through hell and then came a worse hell. This is worse because suddenly you had 20 to 25 years of relative peace. You allowed a generation to dream and then you shut them down again. There’s a whole generation of girls who were born post the departure of the Taliban in 2001 and just when they were ready to spread their wings and fly, you said, okay, girls, we’re going back to square one. Nothing for you. No jobs for you, no school for you, no university for you, no living life as a regular human being for you. It’s worse and what is sad is we’re slowly, day by day, forgetting it. There are many more important things coming on our news. Gaza takes prominence, Ukraine takes prominence, everything is going to take prominence. Who’s talking about Afghanistan today? So, in a certain way, at least, these little films keep provoking a conversation, some level of thought. People are going to just forget about what’s happening in the world. It’s very easy for these mindsets to travel and these mindsets are everywhere. We shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that these mindsets don’t exist. Any patriarchal society has this mindset. I am happy I made this film and I’m so happy to see this girl who is full of enthusiasm for the future that she’s ready to sort of grasp with her own hands. You can come from the experience and the trauma that you went through and, in a way, the film talks about that. It’s like the mother says, just put your head down and do what’s necessary. Don’t play cricket.You’ve escaped this thing. But she holds strong. Cricket was fine in Afghanistan when you were playing it. We haven’t gone through this entire experience so that you can come here and waste your time playing cricket. Just study, make something of your life, get a job. And this girl says, why? This is me. I will do that. In Afghanistan, you never thought that the two are mutually exclusive. So, why are you thinking one will stop me from the other and she refuses to bury her dream. It’s a very uplifting story where she defies all odds including her own mother and goes and pursues her dream. I hope the film made her become more confident. Otherwise, they were always on a bit of a back foot. They were always traumatized by that experience. Cricket really, in a certain sense, made her find her place.”ADVERTISEMENT
In a recent interview, director Chaitanya Tamhane told mid-day that stars and filmmakers should make one film for the kitchen and one for the soul. Filmmaker Kabir Khan has been living that motto from the start of his career. In his filmography, there are blockbusters like Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), as well as hard-hitting offerings like Kabul Express (2006) and New York (2009). “It’s not a conscious thing, I just go with what my heart tells me to do. I’ve never been, thankfully, a victim of this race of being commercially viable. I’ve never done that.I’ve been fortunate, despite that, I’ve had some really big commercial successes. Which is important in this industry, it keeps you relevant, it keeps you going, it allows you to do anything you want. I’ve often said that, for me, my success is not about how much money my films earn me, or the producers and stuff. For me, my success is, till the day I can select what I want to do, and nobody’s telling me, no, don’t do this, do this. The day I’m told to do something according to a brief, then I know that I’m okay servicing a script, and I’m just doing it, maybe for money, maybe to just keep myself busy, maybe to pay for the rent of the office. But up till now, I’m fortunate that I’ve just been able to pick up the films that have really struck a chord with me. Because it’s very important, you have to have that passion for a project for a year and a half. If you pick it up for the wrong reasons, it won’t last you more than a month. By the time you’re on set, you’ll say, “Why am I doing this?,” says the director. His search for such stories led him to My Melbourne. The anthology, which sees four directors – Imtiaz Ali, Rima Das, Onir and Khan – unite to tell short stories, is releasing in India on March 14. Khan’s short Setara tells the true story of a 15-year-old Afghan girl rebuilding her life in Melbourne after fleeing the Taliban, and finding a sense of belonging through cricket. A chance encounter brought this subject to the director. “This is, of course, something completely out of the blue. Mitu called me and said, I’m trying to do this anthology, and will you come? And first it began as, will you just mentor one director. And then there are different subjects, there’s the gender aspect, there’s the disability aspect, there’s the LGBTQ aspect, there’s race relations. She asked me – will you do the race relations? I said, yeah. And we kept looking for stories, and actually, because all the stories, all four of them are picked up from real life. She kept sending me a few that some of the writers are developing, and nothing was really striking the chord. It was decided I’ll only do this if I really get excited about the story. And then this thing started because my film, 83, was getting the award at the Melbourne Festival, so me and Kapil sir travelled there. At one of those receptions, I saw these four, five, girls in their hijabs coming in really excited. I said, why are these girls so excited to see Kapil sir? And then I realised they were members of the Afghan women’s cricket team, which had to run away from there. And that’s how it started. This is such a fascinating story that Melbourne has played host to this team after they ran away from Afghanistan. And it immediately struck a chord with me because I think it brought so many things that I feel for together. Afghanistan is a place I’ve always felt for. I love the underdog stories. We found this 16-year-old cricketer called Setara. See, it’s not 83 when I’m taking a year to train the boys. It’s a five-day short film. And I saw her bowling. I said, oh my God, it’s unbelievable. She’s so thin and tiny. And when she bowls on the field, it’s magic. We workshopped her for a bit. She has such a beautiful face. Her face tells a story. I said, you don’t need to act, you can be yourself. I’ll tell you when I want you to do something. Otherwise, you just be yourself. She was fabulous. Better than a lot of trained actors I’ve worked with. So to the point, subtle, never getting overwhelmed by the cameras.” As we talk about Afghanistan, we recollect Meryl Streep’s statement about cats having more freedom than women in Kabul. Having studied the country since his days as a documentary filmmaker, Khan rues the current situation. “The Americans were bullshitting the world when they were saying, so-called good Taliban, bad Taliban. What the hell? There’s no good cancer, bad cancer. Cancer is cancer. It’s going to get to you, right? So when they were basically trying to pull this fast one on the world because they wanted to somehow not be held responsible for just overnight upping and leaving this country after 25 years of being there and leaving it to people who want to do this. So they made us believe that this is Taliban 2.0. Initially, the Taliban played along with them because I’m sure they were paid money. And, but, now you see, they’re worse than the first version. What girls like Setara are going through, they’re so similar in the way these girls are having to abandon their… You know why it’s sadder, see, Taliban – the first version came on the heels of 25 years of unbroken civil war. So, they were going through hell and then came a worse hell. This is worse because suddenly you had 20 to 25 years of relative peace. You allowed a generation to dream and then you shut them down again. There’s a whole generation of girls who were born post the departure of the Taliban in 2001 and just when they were ready to spread their wings and fly, you said, okay, girls, we’re going back to square one. Nothing for you. No jobs for you, no school for you, no university for you, no living life as a regular human being for you. It’s worse and what is sad is we’re slowly, day by day, forgetting it. There are many more important things coming on our news. Gaza takes prominence, Ukraine takes prominence, everything is going to take prominence. Who’s talking about Afghanistan today? So, in a certain way, at least, these little films keep provoking a conversation, some level of thought. People are going to just forget about what’s happening in the world. It’s very easy for these mindsets to travel and these mindsets are everywhere. We shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that these mindsets don’t exist. Any patriarchal society has this mindset. I am happy I made this film and I’m so happy to see this girl who is full of enthusiasm for the future that she’s ready to sort of grasp with her own hands. You can come from the experience and the trauma that you went through and, in a way, the film talks about that. It’s like the mother says, just put your head down and do what’s necessary. Don’t play cricket.You’ve escaped this thing. But she holds strong. Cricket was fine in Afghanistan when you were playing it. We haven’t gone through this entire experience so that you can come here and waste your time playing cricket. Just study, make something of your life, get a job. And this girl says, why? This is me. I will do that. In Afghanistan, you never thought that the two are mutually exclusive. So, why are you thinking one will stop me from the other and she refuses to bury her dream. It’s a very uplifting story where she defies all odds including her own mother and goes and pursues her dream. I hope the film made her become more confident. Otherwise, they were always on a bit of a back foot. They were always traumatized by that experience. Cricket really, in a certain sense, made her find her place.”
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