Challenging Fixed Narratives in Indian Cinema
Urban Naxals (2018):
‘This is the reason why this film has been made. This film doesn’t agree with a certain thought process. Unfortunately, in India, all the literature festivals, film festivals are run by people with a fixed mindset and a fixed narrative, they are not run by people who love the country, their contribution to India’s capital is zero but to India’s chaos is hundred percent. They won’t let this film show there. That’s why we are here. To show you directly, like the film says, “without the middlemen”.
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First Screening Reception at MAMI
Urban Naxals (2018):
The first screening of the film at MAMI was attended mostly by film industry colleagues. A lot of them came to check it out as they just couldn’t believe that my film was in MAMI.
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Challenges of Celebrating Quality Cinema in India
Urban Naxals (2018):
It’s really strange but true that the films which win national awards or are selected by MAMI and other international film festivals, which deserve to be celebrated by the country and the studios, go through spine-breaking struggle, agony, humiliation, and hopelessness. Studios, producers, actors, and the entire film fraternity should invest in them and showcase them to a large audience to promote good cinema and develop audience taste for them to be able to make better films. We have invested large sums, time, and emotions in dumb cinema and by and by the audience has stopped appreciating any movie which has logic or reality. The industry makes you feel as if you have committed a cardinal crime by making such a film. This is the reason that in a social function you can identify the makers of such films with droopy shoulders, under confident body language, standing alone in a corner, and getting drunk, whereas the maker of a mindless comedy loaded with double entendres would be surrounded by top stars, producers, and media. We are a defective film industry.
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Challenges in Seeking Film Distribution
Urban Naxals (2018):
I decided to at least show the rough cut to as many studios as I could. I met Siddharth Roy Kapur, MD of UTV, who instantly agreed to do a screening. Very strangely, he didn’t come for the screening and instead sent a creative director who had just joined, and a young girl who had no idea of Indian politics. They loved the film and told me that this was one of the finest films they had seen in a long time and it should get a well-planned release. I wasted a lot of time with them and in the end, was told that ‘as a policy, we can’t be associated with a film of this kind’.
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Film Selected for India Gold Category at MAMI
Urban Naxals (2018):
This is when I received an email from the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI), India’s number one film festival, then chaired by Shyam Benegal, that Buddha In A Traffic Jam was officially selected in the India Gold category which features five or six best films of the year.
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From Criticism to Recognition: A Journey
Urban Naxals (2018):
The Leftists, liberals and intellectuals and their sympathizers had panned the film as my fantasy. Journalist Saba Naqvi, in a TV debate, even went to the extent of saying that I oppose Naxals because I have no intellect and radical activists like Kavita Krishnan and Shehla Rashid called the film my fantasy. But once the film started getting ground support, their own organizations, forums started inviting me to their seminars, conventions as the main speaker. The doors of literature festivals opened up for me. Academic forums started inviting me to present my views on Urban Naxalism and Intellectual Terrorism. Since the release of the film, I have been travelling the length and breadth of the country for almost 15-20 days a month to give lectures at various prestigious forums.
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The Rise of Buddha's Supporters
Urban Naxals (2018):
We started getting invitations from Oxford and Cambridge, Australia, Singapore and many American universities and associations. Random people started exposing the lies of people like Raja Sen and Sekhri. Slowly, an army of thousands of Buddha believers started protecting the film from Urban Naxals and started promoting it through unconventional channels. The film found its market, its audience and created an ecosystem. The film got sold to all major digital platforms. It got over a million organic views on YouTube in no time. This is the victory of Buddha.
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Unmatched Appreciation for Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Urban Naxals (2018):
I can guarantee no other small film in recent times has received so much of appreciation, support and fan following like Buddha in a Traffic Jam.
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Trolling Without Watching: A Film's Critique
Urban Naxals (2018):
On the release day, some three hundred troll handles were opened with zero followers to troll the film. This was led by Arvind Kejriwal’s fans and the group of trolls was led by the queens of trolls – @Rajyashree and Swati Chaturvedi @Bainjal, who later wrote a book on trolls. The best part is that none of them had seen the film. Like they share articles without reading them only on the basis of the headline, they started writing pre-determined reviews and comments. One anonymous guy/girl with the handle @GabbbarSingh trolled the film and called it a shitty film. Reading the comments, I knew that he/she had not seen the film so I deliberately asked which chapter he/she hated the most, which was never replied to. This person had not seen the film but was either paid or motivated to write against the film, otherwise, how can anybody be so stupid?
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Cult Following of Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Urban Naxals (2018):
Slowly but steadily, the film started finding its cult. This is the victory of Buddha. Today, at the end of the year, Huffington Post has released a list of the ten best films of the year and they have rated Buddha In A Traffic Jam as the second best, only after Dangal. Many other prominent listings have rated the film among the three best films of the year. Huffington Post writes in honour of our film, of course after watching it and understanding it: ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam is a powerful film about morality, corruption, and social injustice that forces us to think about things which we don’t usually pay heed to. The film was panned by the Indian left-wing lobby at the time of its release. The issue at the heart of Buddha in a Traffic Jam is the Naxalite crisis. But the film dares to show us a different side to the Naxalite movement – not as a struggle in the jungle but driven according to a sophisticated business model designed by high-thinking masterminds. Directed by Vivek Agnihotri, Buddha in a Traffic Jam is well-researched and extremely well made. It is a real pity that the film was unjustly censured for leaning towards the right at the time of its release when in actuality it is equally critical of both the extremes. Here is an important film that hopefully will find a cult following in times to come.’
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Challenging Fixed Narratives in Indian Cinema
Urban Naxals (2018):
This is the reason why this film has been made. This film doesn’t agree with a certain thought process. Unfortunately, in India, all the literature festivals, film festivals are run by people with a fixed mindset and a fixed narrative, they are not run by people who love the country, their contribution to India’s capital is zero but to India’s chaos is hundred percent. They won’t let this film show there. That’s why we are here. To show you directly, like the film says, “without the middlemen”.
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Revolution Through Indianness and Innovation
Urban Naxals (2018):
This film has been made out of that anger and frustration. This film speaks of the freedom that India needs in 2016, it speaks of that revolution. Only one revolution has been spoken of in this country, never the other. The other revolution will only come from Indianness, from innovation, from creating capital, from creating wealth, it will come when you will send money to your home. No one can starve and revolt. There are some people who want a section of people to starve, so that the other revolution comes and their political shops keep running.
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Buddha's Wisdom in Modern Society
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
*Business Standard quoted in Urban Naxals
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Motivating Revolution Through Idealistic Drama
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
... thought-provoking. An idealistic drama, it motivates and instigates the audience for a revolution.
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Buddha's Wisdom in Urban Challenges
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
*Deccan Herald quoted in Urban Naxals
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Exploring Hidden Conflicts in Society
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
Vivek Agnihotri brings us an untouched issue of the hidden war going on in the country....
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Urban Naxals and the Buddha Perspective
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
*The Tribune quoted in Urban Naxals
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Critique of Intellectual Dishonesty in Academia
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
Budda in a Traffic Jam hits hard at the intellectual dishonesty of faculty operating in a system that compromises excellence to promote mediocrity.
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Reflections on Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
*—Mayur Didolkar Novelist quoted in Urban Naxals
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Analysis of Urban Naxals' Impact on Education
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
“Urban Naxals is a daring, if unconventional, analysis at how the far left has captured our educational institutions to produce a generation of brain-washed nihilists to wage war on the masses. Urban Naxals is at once irreverent and introspective, moving and hard-hitting. Urban Naxals will leave you shaken and ask you to join the conversation we, as a nation, ought to be having before it is too late.”
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Reflections on Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
*—Gautam Chikermane Vice President Observer Research Foundation and author, Tunnel of Varanavat quoted in Urban Naxals
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Exploring Darkness Beneath Liberalism and Tolerance
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
Urban Naxals drags you into the hard, brutal and fanatical world thriving beneath the dark shadows of liberalism, free speech and tolerance. Vivek Agnihotri brings the art of storytelling and the craft of filmmaking to breathe life into an ugly phenomenon that has been setting a dangerous national agenda. This is a gripping and disturbing book that constricts your conscience and lingers within long after you’ve finished reading it.
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Reflections on Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
*—Hindol Sengupta Editor-at-Large, Fortune India and author of eight books. quoted in Urban Naxals
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Filmmaker's Encounter with Urban Radicalism
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
“Gripping, newsy account of a filmmaker's encounter with radicalism in urban India”
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Reflections on Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
*—Makarand R. Paranjape in Foreword quoted in Urban Naxals
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Challenges and Triumphs of Representing Indic Ideas
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
First they nearly stopped him from making his film. Then they tried to prevent him from screening it. When he took his exquisite and excruciating creation literally to the streets and to the campuses, showing it directly to target audiences, again he was heckled and blocked. I thought to myself, whether we love or hate the film, we cannot allow this in India. In my own university, JNU, another Leftist bastion, it was blocked by the Dean of the School of Arts & Aesthetics, in whose auditorium it was originally to be screened. Instead, the students arranged an outdoor screening, which was attended by over five thousand. The film had a rousing, almost delirious reception. When I saw it, I was moved, disturbed, provoked. It was one of the most original and unusual movies I had encountered in a long time...There is, besides, “a mindset in Bollywood that doesn't let Indic ideas flourish.”
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Reflections on Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam: [[w:Anupam Kher|Anupam Kher]
*], quoted from the back-cover in Agnohotri, V. (2018). Urban Naxals: The making of Buddha in a traffic jam.
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Relevance of Buddha in a Traffic Jam
Quotes about Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
The most relevant film of our times... considering what is happening in the country.
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Challenge of Ideologies in Relationships
Sheetal:
If my husband can be a Maoist, so can your father!... They are spread across all over India so you have to run away Vikram.
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The Potential of Heritage in Education
Vikram:
Just an earthen pot! But a rare piece of India's artistic tribal heritage.... I thought about the responsibility that...that education should bring. I thought about why despite of booming economy....and an industrial growth rate rivaling any other in the world....why are we still a poor country? Why are our villagers, our downtrodden, our rural areas, our tribals....all not getting even a single piece of this growth? And then I realized that this pot, has the potential to change all that.
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