Director Imtiaz Ali and Vice President of Netflix content Monika Shergill had an exclusive conversation with IANS. While talking to IANS, Imtiaz Ali shared his happiness over Amar Singh Chamkila’s nomination at the 'International Emmy Awards'. Imtiaz Ali also revealed why he chose to tell the story of the iconic Punjabi singer. He opened up about the biggest compliment the film has received. Meanwhile, Vice President of Content at Netflix, Monika Shergill talks about the platform’s evolution. She highlighted India’s growing global presence in the entertainment sector and spoke about upcoming collaboration with Imtiaz Ali.
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NewsTranscript
00:00hello hello how are you how are both of you very well hi after the emmy's thing uh how are you
00:07actually after the emmy's announcement and when emmy's nomination how does it feel
00:11um monica and amtiaz i actually wanted to congratulate you because as an audience member
00:20you must have given a lot of love to the film also it is something which belongs to everyone
00:26yes so i think uh it's it's just so lovely uh as an indian to actually uh have the nomination
00:35for uh you know such a distinctive film right right absolutely absolutely and um emtiaz how does it
00:43feel i mean that's monica's version also i would like to add on my bit uh that i've seen the movie
00:49seven times to be precise i saw it with uh yeah and i loved the movie because every time
00:56i saw the movie i could connect with it in a different way though i uh i'm not from chumkeela's
01:02era but it was something very uh very informative if you went to see from that angle and it's i saw
01:09it seven times and i made everybody also watch the movie with me so yes this is as you mentioned
01:14this is my win too i take it thank you thank you so uh yes amtiaz i mean how does it feel uh you know
01:21it's your baby but netflix has fostered it in such a beautiful way so how does it feel to see your baby
01:28up there um it's actually quite heartwarming to see that international recognition has come to a film
01:36which is very local and which uh had faced hurdles and thanks to netflix got a chance to come to the
01:44world uh but to stand with you know other international filmmakers from different parts
01:51of the world and actors and and the creative fraternity of different parts of the world that's
01:58very very charming yeah um and uh to take india there to take our culture there is also a very
02:06um you know we feel very gratified to be able to do that right right do you do you feel that now with
02:13the the emmy's nomination um the way uh indian storytelling has been perceived out there has
02:20kind of changed because india has always been you know perceived to be uh a place where movies are
02:26filled with dance and drama and basically kabhi am bahar poochte the toho aise goota tha ka aapke
02:31aapke to bohat kaane hote music hote why do you need that what do you have to say about
02:36yeah exactly but that's what their perspective was so uh do you think that this perspective this
02:43perception of people out there in the west would change after chamheela's uh nomination it's just
02:49not about music and drama but it's about strong storytelling as well what would you say to that
02:55monica i think you are the better i actually would say that uh uh the world is suddenly waking up
03:03to uh the power of music in storytelling uh you know if i were to look at k-pop demon hunters
03:11it's the biggest film ever on netflix and the music of it is trending all around the world
03:18i mean chamkeela came before that and uh last year and what chamkeela did and what is being
03:27recognized through this nomination and not just this all the awards chamkeela has won
03:32all the love that has come chamkeela's way the uh social media phenomenon uh you know everything
03:40going viral the songs the reels i think it the world is actually experiencing it through different
03:47stories from india same thing with rr the way natu natu traveled so i feel chamkeela is in in that
03:55line of greats where it is taking the culture from india and actually uh giving a very different
04:03grammar of storytelling so it's not stories have always been important to us but our music has been
04:09equally important to us and to have story and music go hand in hand and actually uh you know be so
04:17defining for people universally i think that's something special that chamkeela has done and
04:22achieved and uh it just shows that we don't need to change that for us actually we do it in a certain
04:30way the whole world will watch absolutely this question is for both of you that when chamkeela
04:35released right uh was there any particular um compliment or feedback that you precisely got
04:41from somebody from the industry that really has stayed with you till date um well i remember see
04:51we had this very nice uh premiere night which uh monica and netflix had organized and the story of
04:59that is that when we were shooting at uh liberty cinema uh which is an old theater in bombay
05:05right but then i had this plan that you know we should have premiere in an old theater like this
05:13and maybe it's not so good for marketing anymore that is why people don't do premieres old style
05:19but for this film let's do it so diljeet was like ah so then thankfully monica bought into this and
05:30said okay we'll have an old-fashioned premiere and we had that at new excelsior no it was so charming
05:36and imtiaz has had a vision for everything on this and even for this premiere this screening
05:43and people came all the way imtiaz like so many people drove across and we all know how we struggle
05:50in this traffic but it was very charming and very very uh special so one of the people over there was
05:58mr bens who is a very uh is a very elderly gentleman he used to be um the superintendent
06:07of police in roper in punjab during the 80s when all the trouble was happening and you know i was a
06:14bit like nervous to meet him after the film because he could have just turned around and told me that
06:19this is not the right portrayal of those times and he said that it really took me back to those times
06:26because it really felt like how did you even know that it it was like this for us in punjab during
06:32the 80s and that was a huge compliment i remember from that night yeah absolutely you know imtiaz you
06:42have had movies uh very different from each other but the main crux would always be human interest
06:50right they were very human they were very heart-touching stories all of them we had jab
06:54we met we had rock star beach also though it is based on a real life incident it's the way the way
07:00it's been weaved right it actually felt that we went we were a part of that era though i'm from
07:06maharashtra and that story is based on from punjab from nord i felt that it was some somebody from
07:11our life that we lost right so that's exactly i think as a storyteller you guys have achieved and
07:17netflix has you know put it across so well i really wanted to know that the question is that
07:22what actually makes you connect to your movies so much like before we connect you you have you have
07:29to connect with your movies right so what is that particular thing that makes you feel here this
07:34subject i think let's this needs to be spoken of or iska story dunya tak pauchna chahiye be it a
07:42fictional story or be it a real story what is the thing that connects this is not a logical decision
07:48okay to make a certain film there is something that moves you like i get moved by something
07:56which is semi-real semi-fiction most of the times it is like that that you know you see something you
08:02see a person you get a thought you imagine that this could be her circumstance in life and then you
08:08think about it and it moves you and then you just go on and on and you know the first
08:15seven steps of filmmaking is for you yourself just for entertainment imagine daydream think about it
08:23talk to that about uh to other people who are not interested try to engage them somehow uh you know and
08:31so you do all of those things and then you start making the film at some point of time so um it's
08:39not a logical decision as far as chamkila is concerned however um through many sources you know every time i
08:46used to go and shoot in punjab or thereabouts people used to tell me the story of chamkila that you know
08:51there was this guy in the 1980s and he was the biggest phenomena there's never been a musical star like
08:58that in punjab he was so popular and his life was so dramatic and tragic and blah blah why don't you
09:05make a film on this why don't you make a film on this then i realized that many of my friends and
09:09many people in the bombay film industry have tried to make a film on his life and i never had the
09:17thought that i should make a film on him because i didn't know much about him okay at that point of
09:23time and i didn't and i knew that there is something sticky about the rights to the film on
09:29his life and then one guy called harpreet just walked into office one day during the uh during
09:35the pandemic and he came and he just said that i have managed for the first time to get the rights of
09:41uh the film and i'd like you to make it he has nothing to do with the film industry but he's still
09:47he's the one who thought that i should make it oh sometimes just a person from nowhere just a man
09:55on the street can do you a big favor which are with a which a multimillionaire can't and he said
09:59because you know you make films in about punjab and punjabis that are good i'm a punjabi i like and
10:08then i think music ke saad bhi apka acha connection me aapmei rockstar me teek sa kaam karna to aapko
10:14banana chahehi and that's how it happened oh my god i mean this is like destiny in a way it is
10:21destiny that that and now i feel that you know it was like grace divine grace moving around like that
10:28and it is a blessing that came to me absolutely absolutely konika this question is for you that
10:33when netflix uh you know basically arrived in india it was basically uh touted to be a not very
10:39desi platform right it was very american and it was very all the drasmatars around it so uh i wanted
10:46to know now uh with movies like chumkeela or for that matter shows like kapil sharma do you think that
10:51you know um it has become more desi and uh indian adapting to the indian uh society more
10:58as compared to the you know notion that it had actually i'd like to ask you that question what
11:05do you think i think it's a okay for me it's a mix uh from the audience's perspective it's a mix i feel
11:13that it has a plethora of uh you know movies from various walks of life and every niche of the
11:19you know entertainment basically yeah this is my answer but mera answer choppega ne na
11:24no uh no it's it was important for me to know uh how you feel about it as an audience member
11:32but uh actually you're right that's the intention you know netflix is meant to be an entertainment
11:39service for all it's not um uh you know meant to be uh a service uh with the audience that we just
11:48started out with a few years ago because when we started out we were and you're right about that we
11:53were an international platform that just one day uh you know came live across 160 countries now we're
12:00in a more than 190 countries but there was a moment in time uh you know uh almost 10 years ago and we
12:08will have our 10 year anniversary coming up in january um it was just put on and there was a lot of
12:15international content which came for the early audiences right uh but uh the journey always the
12:23the uh you know the intention was always to have a netflix india for india telling stories from india
12:32we will always bring the best from around the world from across the world but we are here to work
12:38with the creative industry here uh you know the creators here who are some of the best uh creators
12:45uh you know the craft that we have uh from anywhere across the world our film industry is so uh you know
12:53we are right up there with the biggest film industry in the world so i think for us it was very clear
13:00india has many many many stories to tell we don't even have one india that we say we are many indias
13:07there are so many different kinds of audience segments so netflix reflects that the diversity
13:13and variety that we have uh reflects that whether we'll go for the most beautiful niche festival film
13:22uh you know and take it to a large set of an audience we'll go we'll take a film like lapata ladies
13:28which is charming and small but can actually become so massive on the platform we'll have the biggest one
13:36like rr and pushpa and animal and you know and for from an original standpoint you know we are very
13:44clear that we are here to take stories uh you know which are very close to us as indians to our milieu
13:51to what is relevant to us and what make what moves us you know and what is important to tell what is
13:58entertaining and urgent to tell like chamkila's story uh may not be an urgent story to tell but it's one of
14:07the most important stories to tell because it really reflects the culture of the people the people of
14:14panjab the music history and and really an artist artist journey struggle passion and turns a lens on
14:22society that how we are uh you know we we can make a star we can make an artist and we can you know
14:30take the life of an artist we can break an artist too like we can give love and we can take it back
14:35also so i think that's the that's the story that imtiaz was telling and the whole irony of it the tragedy
14:43of it the beauty of it uh so i think taking stories like these which are so rooted and so local and
14:50that is what netflix is here to do in every which way whether we commission we buy uh at whatever
14:57stage we associate with a story and we are just proud to associate to be able to enable partner
15:03and uh uh you know we are there to entertain the maximum number of indians so if you look at the
15:10range you will know that that's the intent and that's where we are we are right now that's right
15:16that's right um i wanted to know that uh you know i personally feel that at times indian film
15:22industry does kind of seek a lot of validation from the west um that's my perspective i may be
15:27wrong but having said that do you think that we can call it probably a colonial influence yet
15:34i don't know whether it's colonial i think that uh international recognition is always special for
15:41any country you know and for us also an international recognition is a unique thing an important thing
15:47but it's not the first thing we speak at all i think uh the people that we have made the film for
15:55uh first indian you know and uh so the recognition with them is of severe and great important
16:03importance to us and if it is now recognized recognized internationally also if it gives us a
16:10chance to represent the country among other countries then that is you know it's like sports
16:17you you want to you want to win when you go to a tournament or uh you know you you have that because
16:25you're representing your country so i think it's basically that and i i must add that uh uh my
16:33colleagues from across the markets really want their stories their shows their movies to succeed
16:38in india so that's also you know that that's the joy of it you know when you see the stories from
16:44your country your culture just travel anywhere and entertain you know more people yeah india is
16:50the biggest market obviously so yeah it's okay the last question uh this is for you and there's um
16:56uh so it's a little off topic but yeah but he just said that he was a little upset because he
17:01was replaced at job we met do you have anything to say on this uh he's not said it recently he's
17:09uh been saying it for a long time yeah he's saying it for a long time but it's highlighted now
17:13it's a joke and uh uh he that's my connection with him we remember each other like this
17:21we we are very good friends so we don't say good things to each other on the face
17:26we just uh say it behind our backs but um he's a lovely lovely friend and uh this is a joke so
17:35don't fall for it i think i think his fans have already fallen for it but thank you for clarifying
17:41it and uh having said that last question he's a he's a bosom pal he's a very good friend
17:47so the last question for both of you is that abhi chamkila ne toh matlab it's created uh what has it
17:54done for the country right so can we expect any kind of any further collaboration with impiaz and
17:59netflix together i hope so i keep going to their office asking for more work no we are already
18:07working on lots together we haven't announced it but we are deep into many things and uh you'll you'll
18:15hear about them soon okay perfect thank you so much and we i wish we get home the trophy we get
18:21home the recognition thank you so much for this and congratulations to both of you and the entire
18:26country and also thank you thank you thank you so much
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