Anupam Kher: Cinema as a medium can be a tool of change

Anupam Kher still can’t believe that his next film project, director Vivek Agnihotri’s Buddha In A Traffic Jam  pre-empts the recent incidents at the Jawaharlal Nehru University involving the the students leader Kanhaiyalal.

Wonder struck by how prophetic the  cinematic medium can prove to be Anupam says, “It is hard to believe that we made Buddha In A Traffic Jam long before the JNU incident. The parallels are so uncanny that anyone who watches our film would think we’ve actually made the film after seeing what happened at the JNU.”

Says Anupam , “Cinema as a medium can  be a tool of change. We’ve shown how ‘change’ is sometimes a pretext for a power game.”

There are hardhitting anti-establishment dialogues throughout the film. But it has sailed through the censor board without a single cut.

Says Anupam “Yes, we have not had to face a single cut. That’s the beauty of Indian democracy. Everybody gets a chance to say what he or she wants.”

Vivek Agnihotri the director of Buddha In A Traffic Jam  says the film is based on his own experiences during his student days. “I was half Naxal when I came out of my university. Later I realized I was brainwashed by my professors. So I decided to make film on that. Never thought that four years later it will come true in JNU. In fact this using students for ‘intellectual terrorism’ by Naxal-Academia nexus is not new thing. It’s just become more intense hence visible.”