Exclusive! Anirban Bhattacharya: I strongly feel censorship is detrimental to creativity

The actor-director-writer was awarded for the Best Dialogue series (Jury) for Mandaar at the OTTplay Awards 2022

Anirban Bhattacharya at OTTplay Awards 2022

Actor-director-writer Anirban Bhattacharya strongly feels that there will be more censorship of content on OTTs in the near future. In an exclusive conversation with OTTplay, Anirban shared his thoughts on the debate about censorship on OTTs. “The prelude to censorship is already here. We are all aware of what has happened with Amazon Prime’s political drama Tandav. A number of series, like Paatal Lok, Sacred Games and others managed to get released before the government released the guidelines and ethics code in 2021,” he said.

Elaborating further, he said, “But I have a feeling that the censorship will be made stronger on the OTT content. In fact, the state enjoys the power to block content. I strongly feel censorship is detrimental to creativity. I don’t think any film has ever initiated any riot. From Anurag Kashyap's Gulaal to Q’s Gandu and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s S Durga – no film has ever created any riot. All the riots that our country endured were inflicted by politicians and politically motivated elements. Then why censor films and OTT content?”

Also Read: OTTplay Awards 2022: Anirban Bhattacharya wins best dialogue in a series for Mandaar

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The actor opines that censorship on OTTs is introduced to stop the possibility of bringing out harsh and uncomfortable social truths, “I also strongly believe that it is not about sex and nudity or violence that the state wants to put a cap on. The OTT content can hold a mirror up to the society - that bothers the pulpit. I fear the process of censorship on OTT content may speed up. And that will not be great for liberal creative people. In fact, all the entertainment industries across India should voice against such orders if need be.”

Anirban was speaking on the sidelines of OTTplay Awards 2022, where he won the award for the Best Dialogues (Series) for Mandaar. Based on William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the series which marks his directorial debut as well, dropped on Hoichoi in November last year. With Sohini Sarkar, Debasish Mondal and Debesh Roy Chowdhury in lead, the series received positive reviews not only from Bengali film critics but also from the national reviewers.

Sharing his thoughts on winning the award, the actor-director said, “It feels great to be here. Any recognition is great but this one is a little extra special because I received it on a pan-Indian platform.” He explained, “This is an award for the best dialogue writing. While direction, acting, cinematography, etc, has a universal appeal, dialogue is generally area specific. The emotion, quirk and wit vary from one place to the other. In Mandaar, the dialogues are rustic, and it has a flavour of rural Bengal. I am extremely happy that the jury liked that rustic flavour. My team and I are super happy with the award.”

He further added, “Also, this is the first year of the OTTplay Awards and Mandaar is my first directorial work. The first film and first year of awards are always special.” When asked about his thoughts on the first of its kind pan-India OTT awards with the idea of ‘One Nation, One Award’ at its core, he quipped, “It is a fantastic idea in my opinion. When you create a concept of one nation, you recognise the diversity, variety and versatility of India. It is like opening a broader horizon. Kudos to OTTplay for coming up with this concept.”

Since the boundaries of languages seem to be getting blurred increasingly, ask him which other languages he’d like to explore as an actor, apart from Bangla and Hindi, pat comes the reply, “I would think my first choice would be the Malayalam industry for all the great directors and writers there.”

However, the actor said that he’d rather focus on Bengali first. He explained, “I’ll tell you why. My training as an actor is language centric and it is Bengali that I have a complete grip on. I trained myself in Bangla. To work in any other language, I will have to go through a similar course of training to master the language. I don’t have that time at the moment and for me mastering the language is imminent in acting. Having said that, I will still try to explore any Hindi offer that I get provided it is not area specific. I don’t think I can take on a dialect-centric Hindi, like Haryanvi, etc.”

Does he feel that OTTs are now calling the shots? “OTT is a part of our daily life now. It is the new thing on the horizon of entertainment. I believe it will peacefully coexist along with the theatres,” he said. Ask him about his recent watchlist on OTTs and he says, “I watched Delhi Crime 2 (Netflix) and the Malayalam film Pada on Amazon Prime.” He also recommended Sacred Games, Pada, Nayattu, Narcos and Delhi Crime season one to our readers before signing off.

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