Films on the industry have rarely worked. Didn’t that play on your mind when you made Khoya Khoya Chand?
I made Khoya Khoya Chand (KKC) because I wanted to make a film about being in the movies. Yes, there is a notion that movies on films don’t work but my argument is that if cinema is such an all-consuming passion for Indians, why won’t a film on it work, if it’s made well? Films about filmmaking normally tell you that the movie world is a terrible place. I wonder why. Of course, there are problems and the world of movies will kill us one day, but we love it. We’d rather die here than die anywhere else.

Is KKC a director’s professional tribute to cinema or a film lover’s fond recollection of an era gone by?
It’s a tribute to the movies. The 1950s and ’60s were exciting times in not only Indian, but also world cinema with discoveries happening in every field of filmmaking. KKC is about that time, the cinema and two people—writer-director Zaffar and actress Nikhat— caught up in the wild passionate world of the movies. It’s a very complicated, passionate and difficult story of love, work, ambition and sexual politics.

Like Kagaz Ke Phool, KKC explores a director-actress relationship. Were you wary of comparisons?
I am a great admirer of Guru Dutt and I think Pyasa and Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam are two of the greatest popular films ever made. If I have to take one film to an island with me, it will be Sahib Biwi... I love it. But Kagaz Ke Phool is an indulgent film that wallows in despair. The film industry is not such a despairing place. If somebody tells me the story of Kagaz Ke Phool, I won’t make that film. Kagaz Ke Phool was a lament while Khoya Khoya Chand is a tribute to the movies.

... contd.