Meet Jab Nair and Shetty for more on Zoom Voguethey exchange notes about each other’s work and discuss the tug-of-war between authenticity and representation. Most of all, they talk about resisting the pressure to flatten identities into marketable tropes. For both filmmakers, the challenge and the joy are the same: to show India as it is—in all its messy, irreducible complexity.
Vogue: Meera, you have often said that you are an Indian filmmaker at home in the world. Your films have helped change the way the world sees India and its diaspora. Bejoy, your music videos, especially your recent work with Hanumankand, are firmly rooted in Indian culture. How important is the idea of representation in your work?
My Nair: I am not here to be an ambassador and say that my country is so wonderful, so rich. I don’t approach filmmaking like a Benetton ad. The point is to dive into the layers of life in front of you and bring the humanity out of that place, and to do it in a way that’s so true that it becomes universal. The thing is, we are not islands among ourselves. We are actually all human. An Indian filmmaker living in New York, then in East Africa, I was always in places where I was a novelty, where I was forced to explain myself, he said. But I grew up with a kind of intensity – I’m not going to justify myself or lecture you on my bundy. I refuse to let people who don’t live in our streets take our culture and amplify it.
Boy Shetty: Sadly, colonialism is in our DNA, where we assume that Western culture is superior. But in all honesty, I’ve benefited from this impression. With “Big Dogs”, there was a lot of backlash because they never thought an Indian could rap like that. It’s not like a great video with a high production value. It’s just the shock of being an Indian rapper and an Indian music video that has taken it wherever it has. But once that novelty wears off, does your work have a strong enough identity to hold the viewer’s attention? That’s what really matters.
Meera, you’ve talked about how your main influence is the street, even if that’s where your stories come from your tendency to cast non-actors in your films. Boy, was hip-hop born on the streets of the Bronx. Can you talk about what Glee means to you as a character, and how you look to her for inspiration?
