null It’s a trickle, but slowly, surely, voices can be heard from the Hindi film industry, demanding an end to the Gujarat violence and the deliberate polarisation of communities in the state. Though Nandita Das has always been identified with the so-called ‘parallel’ stream of filmmaking, her presence in some very mainstream, very masala films like Aks with Amitabh Bachchan makes her crossover complete. But labels don’t matter, what’s important now is that actors give voice to their clout and speak up instead of standing by, says Das.

The actress, who was in Chennai attending the national conference of the National Federation of Indian Women, spoke to Vani Doraisamy.

Your films Fire and Water have been targets for fundamentalists.

Wherever there is trouble, art is most often the quickest way of resistance. Even when I was in street theatre, I did almost 50 shows protesting against communalism. And then there was Deepa Mehta’s Fire which they tried to stop after it ran for three weeks in the theatre. Water is a test case. When Deepa told me the story, I told her, thank God, there is nothing controversial about this. How wrong I was, I spoke too soon. Gujarat did not happen suddenly, there is a pattern that has been taking shape for quite some time.

You have been speaking of some kind of a masterplan to help Gujarat. What do you have in mind?

There should be a larger platform of people from all spheres of life. Only smaller voices are being heard these days. It’s time we consolidated all of them so that we shout loud enough to be heard. Lots of people today think Gujarat is a faraway place. What they do not seem to realise is that the ‘Gujarat experiment’ might replicate itself anywhere next.

‘It’s time to shout loud enough to be heard. Many people think that Gujarat is a faraway place, they just don’t realise it’s next-door’

Can civil society hope to heal the wounds of Gujarat?

I wish we had some such formula. I do not think the wounds will heal at least for a lifetime. When people see their mothers being raped, their children being burnt alive, how can we even speak of healing their wounds? At least a couple of generations have been massacred there. What we can do, however, is to raise our voices to show we care.

You were planning to visit Gujarat. Why haven’t you done that yet?

I did not think I was strong enough. How do you go and ask someone to tell you how his wife was raped and burnt? I want to go there only when I was sure that I have something concrete to offer.

Could it be that the media coverage of the violence has desensitised people and made them feel they have seen enough?

How can it ever be enough? The press, I believe, has shown exemplary courage and responsibility in this matter. They have sustained the momentum almost on a daily basis by giving Gujarat front page coverage and following it up in editorial after editorial. If you see the truth, you have to speak out. One cannot get too comfortable and say, I don’t have the heart to know more.

Apart from Rajya Sabha MP Shabana Azmi and you, there haven’t been too many in Bollywood willing to speak up on crucial issues. There seems to be a studied silence on the part of the mainstream Hindi film industry.