I grew up on Ray and Ghatak films: Anurag Basu

Ritwik Ghatak
I come from a very small town in Bengal where we didn’t have much exposure to films apart from those by Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. I grew up on a dose of their films as my father was also a huge fan of their work.

It was Ghatak who I greatly admired as a filmmaker way before I even dreamt of becoming a director myself. I think he was underrated in the film industry. In my opinion, no one could portray women protagonists in films the way he could, and explore the darker side of human nature.

Every film of him made a larger statement. Whether it was Subarnarekha or Titash Ekti Nadir Naam or Bimal Roy’s Madhumati, which he had written — these films have left an indelible mark on me as a filmmaker.

Buster Keaton
It was only after I became a filmmaker that I got exposed to world cinema and the works of other greats and even now I continue to come across films that leave a long-lasting impression on me.

Many of these films reflect the fact that technology should be a slave to your story and not the other way around. There are filmmakers who’ve overcome personal and professional hurdles to give us something beautiful on screen. Of them, Buster Keaton is a filmmaker I greatly admire. He’s a recent discovery for me but I’m already hooked to his films, and especially loved The General. I think he’s a genius for having made the kind of films he did back in the silent era of the ‘20s.

What he could achieve back then was simply incredible. It’s easy to see why he’s considered to be one of the masters in the west.

Takeshi Kitano
Another filmmaker whose work I’ve come across off late and loved is the Japanese director Takeshi Kitano. I was equally amazed by his personal life as I was with his onscreen achievements.

He had started as a stand up comedian and went to on to make extremely violent films like Outrage and Boiling Point and then did an absolute u-turn with a heart-touching film like Kikujiro. I think his body of work is brilliant and his versatility is something every filmmaker hopes to achieve.

Wong Kar-Wai
Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai is also someone whose work has deeply influenced me and who I greatly admire. His Fallen Angels, In the Mood for Love and As Tears Go By are my all-time favourites, although I did not quite like Blueberry Nights. He captures little nuances on camera so beautifully that you cannot help but be touched by his films. They just become a part of you.

Rajkumar Hirani
Apart from these world masters, I think Rajkumar Hirani is simply brilliant. His films are stories told straight from the heart and reflect a certain honesty and sincerity that reflects on screen, because Raju himself is a wonderful person. His films make you smile, cry and think all at once. It’s rare to find such a genuinely nice and warm person and my respect for him goes beyond that for a filmmaker. I think he can give any of us an inferiority complex with that combination of filmmaking brilliance and warm nature.