Anamika Haksar on her feature debut Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon finally getting a theatrical release

Veteran theatre director Anamika Haksar says she took loans and is in debt after working on her first film, Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon , but she is thrilled as the offbeat movie will soon hit the big screens.

The origin of the title of the film itself has an interesting story behind it.

“When I was about 16 or 17, one of my aunts was studying music in old Delhi. She told me a story. She said that she was trying to catch a tonga in old Delhi. The tonga person said, ‘Didi ghode ko jalebi khilane le ja riya hoon. Abhi toh mere pass waqt nai hai.’ This story stayed in my mind. It’s a very typical idiomatic expression of old Delhi. You can interpret it in many ways,” she says.

When the alumnus of the National School of Drama started working on the film, she chose to keep this as the title as it sums up old Delhi.

It took her about seven years to make the movie. After being screened at film festivals like Sundance Film Festival and Mumbai International Film Festival, it will finally arrive in theatres on 10 June.

“It’s a very different sort of a film. It’s very offbeat. The fact that it is releasing at all, is very big. I have to give credit to Platoon One Films for supporting a film like this. If it comes out, it will be like a victory of indie cinema,” says the director of the film that focuses on the lives of a pickpocket, a vendor of sweet and savoury snacks, a labourer-activist, and a conductor of Heritage Walks.

Her aim is not only to show it in multiplexes to the urban audience, but also join hands with NGOs in old Delhi and people from different walks of life.

“It is based on the documentation of people who are living in old Delhi. We are trying to mobilise people from Shahjahanabad…. workers, loaders and poets from Jama Masjid area. If they can come, it will be a sense of peace and celebration of people,” she says.

“It’s celebrating compassion and tolerance of our people. We are also talking about dreams and multilayers of the city. There’s a pickpocket’s point of view. There’s quite a bit of humour too,” she adds.

It was slated to release in 2020 but got delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, like many others, she also tried to release the movie on OTT.

“We did try Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but many commercial films also released on OTT, so at that time they were not ready for this kind of film,” says Haksar about the movie that stars Ravindra Sahu, Raghubir Yadav, Lokesh Jain and K Gopalan.

“We have wonderful actors, but maybe not recognised except for Raghubir. Maybe they wanted more recognisable people. Maybe after the film releases, things will open up. We are hoping,” says the Uchakka director.

For now, her team is doing door-to-door campaign because they know they won’t have ads to promote the film. “We don’t have big money. We went to Lucknow. I am from theatre, so I spoke to theatre people. I also spoke to NGOs in Delhi, institutions, people in Mumbai. We are doing this and hoping that it will draw an audience,” she says.

She is not concerned about box office numbers though. “The concern is to bring all kinds of people to the hall. Anyway, we will get fewer screens, so we can’t expect to make millions. But if we can impact young people, I’ll be happy,” says the theatre veteran, who was trained at the State Institute of Theatre Arts, Moscow.

Making the film was no less than a learning experience for her.

“When we interviewed a pickpocketer and asked what he would do with Rs one crore, he said that he would like to educate people and help widows by giving them a shop each. It was a very idealistic answer. It wasn’t like saying, ‘I want roti, kapda, makaan.’ It was very shocking because we were expecting a more practical answer. There are many things that we have learnt from this experience and I want those to be communicated. Everyone dreams, but not every poor person is just dreaming of material goods,” she shares.

Her next directorial will be a play, and not a film. “I need to recover my debts and energy (laughs). I have lots of debts. Loan leke hee kar rahe hai yeh sab. Once I recover from that then I’ll definitely make another film,” she concludes.

Natalia Ningthoujam is a Manipur-based journalist. She knows how to smoothly switch from being a fan to a writer whenever needed. She tweets at @nattynick.

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