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Dearth of creativity in Indian film industry, feels 'Ankhon Dekhi' director Rajat Kapoor

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There is a huge creative deficit in the Indian film industry, feels actor-filmmaker Rajat Kapoor. 

On the sidelines of the Dharamshala International Film Festival, where his latest, Aankhon Dekhi, was the opening feature, the actor said that the industry is more invested in the money that these movies churn, than the creative process.
 
"There is no dearth of creative people in the industry, but they are more inclined on making money than making intelligent cinema," said Kapoor.

Kapoor does not watch any Bollywood movies, though he feels that the movies of Anurag Kashyap are some of the best in the industry. "He is the only guy I know of who has a vision and is willing to put it out there. I also love the work of Marathi filmmaker Parish Mokashi, and thoroughly loved his Harishchandrachi Factory." 

Kapoor's latest feature, Aankhon Dekhi, about an old man out to figure the world around him on his own terms, has done well critically. With the lack of funds a recurring problem in making niche cinema, it is a bit of a surprise that Kapoor found his producer on microblogging site twitter. "I tweeted saying that I am sick of producers and a young man from Nigeria tweeted back saying that he was interested. In a while, I was ensured Rs 4 crore. He was an absolute angel," says Kapoor. "The movie flopped commercially, and yet he has put in his money in five projects." 

Kapoor, who studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India​ (FTII) in Pune, says he became an actor by accident. "Acting is a neat, easy job. I was looking for funds for my projects, and Naseeruddin had seen my work and recommended me to Mira Nair. I became part of Monsoon Wedding; it was a happy accident," says Kapoor.

Looking back at his work, the filmmaker says he finds a pattern in his work. "My characters Raghu from Raghu Romeo, Sunil from Mixed Masala, VK from Mithya and Bauji from Aankhon Dekhi are obsessive characters, and yet they are impressive in some sense," he says.

Kapoor adds that money has always been a problem for making films. "For Raghu Romeo, I saved up Rs 10 lakh, and NFDC promised me a similar amount. I then sent out mails to friends asking them to buy shares in the movie. Some contributed by making the website, some gave me lyrics. It was a crowd-sourced film when these concepts were not spoken of," he says. 

Kapoor is now working on three projects; one of them is a gangster movie, while another is a theatre film.

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