The water divide, Shekhar Kapur's magnificent obsession

When Shekhar Kapur announced the film Paani a few years ago, audiences waited with bated breath. But after numerous delays, which Kapur attributes to the “ridiculous ambition” he has attached to the film, he is finally ready to start making Paani.

If you follow him on Twitter, Kapur sounds obsessed with the topic of water, with constant updates on water problems around the world. “My nine-year-old daughter, too, keeps reminding me what we should do to ensure we don’t waste too much water,” he says.

In between replying to tweets from his followers and getting a lamp fixed in his Juhu home, Kapur spoke to DNA about how the scarcity of water has seeped into urban life, the inevitability of water wars “in the dangerously near future”, and the challenges of making a film that has both a message as well as an emotional connect with a global audience.

When did you first think of making Paani?
It came from a conversation I had with a rural politician. You know, we think politicians from rural areas are stupid and inadequate, but they know the real problems that our villages face in a way we can’t understand. One such Haryanvi politician told me, “Shaher main ek flush main jitna paani nikal jaata hai, utna paani yahaan ka ek parivaar teen din chala sakta hai.” [The amount of water spent while flushing the toilet once in the city is what an entire family in a village can use for three days.]

That got me thinking. Then, a few months later, I went visiting this really rich guy who lives at Malabar Hill. He was showering while I waited for him outside, and I could hear the constant flow of water inside and he didn’t emerge for a good half hour.

Later, on my way home, I saw this long queue of women and girls — there were hardly any boys — waiting with buckets to fill from a water tanker. That’s when the idea of Paani struck me. The film is not so much about the scarcity of water — that is something we know about already — but about the fact that water is what will eventually distinguish between two classes: one which gets it freely and one which doesn’t.

You had announced the film quite a few years ago, but it kept getting delayed. Why have you taken so long to get down to making Paani ?
It could be to do with the fact that I’m ridiculously ambitious about this film. First, I didn’t want the film to be studio-backed because I wanted complete control over the project. Plus, I need the best technicians in the world to collaborate with me. In Paani, I will be projecting a Mumbai of the future — it will need work on design, visuals, and many other things to make it a believable yet captivating world — something like Blade Runner.

Passion projects like Paani cannot be forced. Besides, there was never an imperative to make the film, although now I believe there is.

Why do you say there is an imperative now?
When I started my research on the film and spoke to people about water, I realised water is what would divide classes — especially in urban areas — in the future. But no one shared my opinion at the time. You see, scarcity of water had always been considered a problem for villages. It was not something people thought will affect urban areas, too.

But with a growing urban population, the need for more water grows every day. So groundwater gets extracted from rural areas and transported to cities. Then commercialisation sets in. Where does the water sold in plastic bottles come from? A corporation with money and muscle gets water from the interiors, packages it, and sells it at a higher cost in the cities.

Control over groundwater needs huge funding and control over the local government — it’s all about power. Those who have the power control the water and drip-feed the rest of the population. Paani will basically be about water wars between these two classes.

When I started writing the film, I thought of setting it 40 years down the line. Later, it seemed like such a situation could arise earlier than I had imagined, and now we have reached a point where the problem already exists. So now Paani could be based, maybe, 10 years down the line. The film starts with the line, “In the dangerously near future.”

You talk about water wars in the city. You think a situation like that could occur in the near future?
If I have access to water at home and there are people dying of thirst right outside, how will I stop them from forcing their way into my house? I don’t know if water wars will actually occur, but they seem probable.

See, if you are from a village where water is a problem, what do you do? You move to the city. Yes, you move for employment and food, too, but the availability of water is a major factor. Then there’s a tussle between locals and immigrants, which we have witnessed already. This is natural. Say you are living in a village of a thousand people with very scarce water, will you allow outsiders to come and stay?

Now imagine a city of 17 million people facing a water scarcity. They will obviously want to throw you out. And when the water gets transported from rural areas to cities, do you think the people on the edge of the city — those with no water — will allow the passage? So then there will be armed guards. But it won’t stop those without water from revolting. When your child is dying of thirst, you won’t think twice before getting violent. So then there will be riots, there will be water wars.

That is the basis of the story of Paani. A city — Mumbai in this case — divided in two over the problem of water. There will be the upper level of the haves, and the lower level of the have-nots.

You once said that you are interspersing your story with an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet? Will the two lovers in your film be from these two levels?
That was what I said when I was trying to get finance for the film (smiles). See, Romeo and Juliet is only an example. Essentially, every story that strikes a chord with a large audience is a love story — whether it’s romantic love or otherwise. Love is an emotion everyone recognises.

Take Avatar for example, or any other global success for that matter. Gone with the Wind tells you much more about American history than any other film. But at its core, it’s a romantic film.

So, yes, Paani will have a love story, but it will only be a means to communicate the real story — that of water.

There have been news reports that you will cast some international stars. How can you have foreign actors when your film is based in Mumbai?
The Mumbai of the future that I have envisioned will be a power hub, and foreigners — Europeans, Africans, Chinese, Americans etc — will all be living here. In fact, it’s already happening. There’s a huge expat population with a lot of money in the city.

Of course, the foreign characters in the film will be transient. Like in the IPL [Indian Premier League] (smiles).

Considering the subject, wouldn’t a documentary have worked better than a fictional story?
In fact, I believe that I am getting so much support to make Paani right now because it’s a feature film. People recognise the fact that a story always becomes easier to narrate when told through the point of view of characters. A film works when you keep your audience emotionally entangled.

Of course, Paani has not been an easy script to write. There’s a lot to say and all of it has to be done via interplay between your characters. But it will only strike a chord with a larger audience if they are involved in a story. It’s the emotional connect between the story and the audience that helps communicate a message. And a good filmmaker doesn’t spell out the message he’s trying to pass on. The message should come across within the actions of your characters, their journey.

The audience should realise that all along, while they were being entertained, there was also something being communicated at a higher level. Last year, two of the biggest hits in India were international films — 2012 and Avatar. Both of them, incidentally, focused on the environment, but what worked with audiences around the world was that they made an emotional connect with them. Filmmaking is about making that global connect, which I hope I can make with Paani.