Victor Banerjee has collaborated with great directors like Roman Polanski, James Ivory and Satyajit Ray but he says he enjoys working with the new-age filmmakers, who have a fresh take on old attitudes.
The actor will be next seen in young director Raj Amit Kumar’s “Unfreedom”, which juxtaposes two powerful and unflinching contemporary stories about religious fundamentalism.
Ahead of the film’s release in the US, Banerjee said he derives a lot of energy from these young minds.
“People believe I am selective. I am not. Directors pick me, not I them. I am delighted that young filmmakers want me in their films. They have open minds and a fresh take on old attitudes. I derive a lot of energy from them. Most of all, I find their love and respect utterly disarming,” Banerjee told PTI.
Written and directed by Kumar, the “Unfreedom” also stars Bhanu Uday, Seema Rahmani, Ankur Vikal, Samrat Chakrabarti and Adil Hussain.
Before Kumar’s film, Banerjee starred in another young director Prashant Nair’s film “Delhi In a Day”? Banerjee said he prefers working with such filmmakers than those who are obsessed with themselves and their big-budget projects.
“Age isn’t an attraction. Imagination is. Prashant, Raj, Tushar and Goran have clever minds that I find interesting and working with creative people instead of upstart directors who are full of themselves and their box-office hits, is always an honour, a privilege and a pleasure,” he said.
Shifting between New York and New Delhi, the story of “Unfreedom” is about two stories- one follows a Muslim terrorist, who kidnaps a liberal Muslim scholar in order to silence him, while the other charts the travails of a young woman whose devout father tries to force her into an arranged marriage, which she resists because she is secretly in love with another woman.
“Unfreedom” has failed to get a censor clearance in India. Banerjee said censorship in any country depends entirely on, and is representative of, the culture it belongs to.
“Your attitude in America to Native Americans and African Americans and Civil rights and gay marriages, guns and creation and Darwin vary radically from state to state,” he said.
