It's important to make political-themed films: Anand Gandhi

Filmmaker Anand Gandhi says his upcoming documentary feature on the political party, Aam Aadmi Party and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal holds more relevance in today's times, when the country has become politically sensitive.
Lately, there have been instances when the film industry found itself at the receiving end of the wrath of political and religious outfits who took offence of the content shown on the big screen.
When asked if it's difficult to come up with films talking about politics, specially when certain outfits might try to bully filmmakers, Anand said, "All the more reasons to do it. It is clearly not the time to stay silent or be repressed. We are a post democracy civilisation and we can aspire for a state with higher decentralisation of power, a consent-based policy making. We need to have nuanced conversations," Anand told PTI.

The director feels when a filmmaker is trying to touch a political subject, it's important for him to be neutral.
"As filmmakers, our responsibility is to be honest, neutral and rigorous. We need to be rigorous with our fact-checking, documenting... It is extremely important to be honest to what we are showing and what the reality is. If we achieve that, then we are on the right path."
The filmmaker is now awaiting for the Censor certificate of "An Insignificant Man" after which the film will be up for release.

The "Ship of Theseus" director has meanwhile launched 'ElseVR', touted as Asia's first platform for Virtual Reality journalism.

It features VR documentaries directed by Faiza Khan, Nishtha Jain, Khushboo Ranka, Naomi Shah and Pourush Turel.
The documentaries chronicle several issues, from how cold mines are having adverse effects on livelihood, to the right to pray for females in temples.
"These are the stories which perhaps may not be getting the attention they deserve. These are the narratives happening around us but we think they are elsewhere and hence the title of platform, 'ElseVR', came from there," he said.
"You will find people talk about American politics more vigorously, and in a more informed way than they talk about Indian politics. That's the failure of our journalism.

"Why is that the common person is more informed with what's going on with Trump and completely failing to see the policies that we need to be talking about and protesting. Its important we talk about these things urgently," added Gandhi.
Anand began working on the concept of VR by shooting documentaries under this technology and has also shot the making of "Dangal" in VR.
"I wanted to experience something which is beyond the big screen but more immersive. With VR, you get that edge-of-the-seat feel. I am elated that Aamir (Khan) agreed to do a VR component for 'Dangal'.