PRESS INTERVIEWS

In a no-holds-barred chat with MV Sreejith, Bharat Gopy opens out on his early years in theatre, his entry into films, and his acceptenance of destiny as a crucuial part of one’s existence.

Bharat Gopy minces no words as he discusses his political affiliations, his transition from a staunch leftist to his growing disenchantment with the principles itself, and how a new perspective is the need of the hour for the nation.

Bharat Gopy is of the firm belief that Indian audience do not need a Censorship entity to decide on their behalf, what to watch and what not to, in a feature film. With Yamanam, he adds wryly that not a single distributor has even evinced interest in the movie, regardless of it winning a National Award.

He is hopeful that Doordarshan would, at some point in time, decide to telecast the film as they are duty bound for all National Award winning features.

“My disability, because of a stroke, doesnot permit me to act in films, ” says Gopy in the Press Club Meet in Thiruvananthapuram post his recovery. ” That is why I have taken to production and direction.”

According to him, the trend in Malayalam films characterises the mad race for spinning money. But Gopy is optimistic that things will turn for the better in the next decade.

Deshabhimani’s report on the Press Club Meet, elaborating on how Bharat Gopy refuses to categorise his roles onscreen into good and bad, as according to him, they were all good in their own ways. Else he wouldn’t have taken them on.

Bharat Gopy waxes eloquent on how his adaptation of George Onakkoor’s novel into ‘Yamanam’ infused a new sense of purpose and optimism in him.

In his first Press Club meet post his recovery and return to film-making, Bharat Gopy speaks without any reservations on his illness, the business of cinema and the suffocating, mindless machinations of the National Censor Board.

He doesn’t mask his pain at the “commoditisation” of films and how they have by now become products ratehr than works of art with commercial value.

The copy of the interview, found in the personal files of Bharat Gopy clearly shows his displeasure in the way he has mercilessly hacked away at the bloopers that has formed a part of the published interview.

Gems include him being reportedly feted for the Best Director Award for “Abhayam”, acting in “G Sankara Pillai’s ” Swayamvaram, the original story of Yamanam credited to a certain “George Chaka”, amongst others.

Bharat Gopy speaks to Daksha Hathi of Deccan Herald at the 23rd International Film Festival, where he is present as the director of Yamanam, which sadly had failed to find a place in the Panorama selection.

He took sweet revenge by organising a private screening of the film to the film lovers and the delegates of the film the next day.

At the 23rd International Film Festival held at Bangalore, Bharat Gopy was fury personified as he lashed out against the senseless levels at which the Panorama Selection Committee works.

He tells BS Nagaraj and MK Madhussodhan as to how, for the life of him, he cannot understand how Yamanam, a National Award winning film couldn’t find a place in the Indian Panorama, as compared to the potboliers “in” like Henna.