Seven sisters yet to catch B’wood’s eye

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Victor Thoudam from NSD in one of the plays

While Bollywood has explored practically every aspect of conflict in movies — from wars to riots to communal tensions — it has never featured the the prolonged conflict in the Northeast. Think of actors from the region, and Danny Denzongpa from Sikkim and Seema Biswas from Assam are the only names to have made it big in Indian cinema.

In a recent interview, Aamir Khan, who played the character of Phunsuk Wangdu from Ladakh in 3 Idiots, was quoted saying that he wants to cast actors from the Northeast. “I want to see topics, stories and strong characters emerging from Northeast India in mainstream cinema.” Agreeing with Aamir Khan are many Northeast students who aspire to make it big in the film and theatre industry.
Victor Thoudam, a third-year National School of Drama student from Manipur says, “Bollywood, which has always remained Mumbai-centric, has lately started opening to new cultures like Bengal and UP. Ironically, Northeast has always remained isolated from the cinematic world. There are many regional issues like Arms Forces Special Power Act, militarisation, ethnic crises, tribal crises, opium controversy, human trafficking, economic blockages, human rights violation that can be made into films. Also, the Northeast is not portrayed enough in films, because it gets hardly any coverage in media. People are unaware of its problems, culture. When in college, I directed a play on Irom Sharmila and students came forward for auditions. Cinema can explore it further, but only few take the initiative.”
Although the Northeast region is a hub of talented actors, many fail to make it to the national stage because of their regional accent. Shares Ben Dang Walling, NSD student from Nagaland, “Many are rejected because of the way they speak. We mostly get roles of sidekicks. So many go back to their region to hone their acting skills. I worked with a Nagaland director Temjen Pomgen in Ojala Kong Ajuru Thu, which was also screened at the Nagaland Film Festival. The actors get recognition in their land,” he says.
Many Northeast filmmakers have earned recognition for their work globally, including director Ari Bam Shayam for his film Witchcraft, which was screened at Cannes and director Pawan Kumar who won several accolades for his regional films. But young Northeast actors and filmmakers, from reputed institutes like FTII or NSD, want to go back to their land to promote their regional cinema, culture and talent, before making it big in Bollywood.
While Victor wants to open a theatre company and Ben wants to conduct acting workshops in Nagaland for budding young actors, Parasher Baruah, an FTII Pune graduate in cinematography from Nagaland, is working on mapping the social and political history of Nagaland with a photo-documentary project titled A map of human faces. Under the banner of Bluevanda Films, Parasher, along with several collaborators, is involved in developing original content for short fiction films based on Northeast India.
Citing a different point of view, former FTII student Rukshana Tabassum from Assam feels that the Northeast culture should be first promoted though TV series for a better impact. “Indian audiences are hardly acquainted with Northeast culture. Television series based on Bhojpuri, Bihari, Marathi cultures nave earned great accolades on TV and so will Northeast. I never thought of making a film on my region. Northeast has exotic culture and historical stories. It needs a platform to flourish.”
Director Rajshree Ojha of Aisha fame sums up by saying, “Northeast is a fabulous space to explore because they have great stories to tell, lovely locations to show. I believe as a country we have not even explored half of it. They are only few who have explored the land’s diaspora and diversity.”