Resisted lobbying for National film awards, says jury chairman

Director Rahul Rawail, credited with launching such stars as Sunny Deol and Aishwarya Rai, gives a peek into the process.

Rahul Rawail, well-known director and chairman of the National film awards jury this year, says he had to use the rule book to stop undue influences from creeping into the selection process.

In Bengaluru to train students for a certificate course at RV University’s School of Film, Media, and Creative Arts, he told Showtime the advent of the mobile phone with a camera is encouraging every family to make films.

Excerpts:

What were the challenges of being the chairman of the jury this year? 

There were agreements and disagreements but we finally came out with something unanimous. Overall, every film had to have a charm of its own. We had a great time with a great number of films. 

Do lobbying and political compulsions play a part in the selections?

Yes, people are lobbying. This was the second time I was part of the jury and I decided if anyone tried to lobby, I would have them debarred for three years. So when somebody tried to lobby, I said, “I will debar you”. And they just backed off. But there were no political compulsions at all.

How do you react to the criticism that National awards are now being given to popular, and even populist, cinema and not just to serious cinema?

I don’t know what people mean when they say serious cinema and popular cinema. Cinema is just one and National awards are given to all kinds of movies. This differentiation does not work.

Do you see any change in the way films are being made since the time you made your early hits such as ‘Love Story' (1981) and ‘Betaab’ (1983)?

Things are getting more contemporary. Audiences are willing to accept things which were not accepted before. I would say filmmaking itself has changed a bit because of the advent of camera phones. In this country, every family has an actor and a writer and they make films with this camera and release them on the Internet. The quality does differ but some films are really exciting.

‘Kantara' won the best actor award for Rishab Shetty. What did you personally think of the Kannada and south Indian films that made it to the winners’ list?

They were all really interesting, they were different, they experimented with genres, whether it was ‘Kantara’ or ‘KGF’. They were talking about different genres completely and bringing about change in the industry. Of course ‘Kantara’ was more insightful than ‘KGF’. ‘KGF’ was set in an unbelievable land but it was worth it.