Award-winning editor Renu was ‘a bad habit’

The national award-winning film editor Renu Saluja passed away in 2000, but like all true artistes, she left an indelible mark on Indian cinema.

She was a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII, 1976). It is only fitting that Graftii—the alumni association of the institute—should hold a retrospective of some of her best films (Fun Republic, June 15-17) for film fans to rediscover Saluja’s remarkable contribution to our cinema.

The festival is being jointly organised by the National Film Archives of India and Fun Republic.  Graftii had held a retrospective of cinematographer KK Mahajan last year. 

Saluja won the National Award for best editing for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda, Sudhir Mishra’s Dharavi,

Ketan Mehta’s Sardar and Vinay Shukla’s Godmother. She tackled a range of genres and sensibilities, from Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen to Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron  and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1942: A Love Story.

She said that editing was her second choice, as she did not get selected for the direction course. But she took to editing in earnest and was never tempted to direct.

Her FTII mates Vidhu Vinod Chopra (to whom she was once married), Saeed Mirza, Kundan Shah, and others in the parallel cinema movement like Sudhir Mishra and Govind Nihalani, could depend on her to work her magic on their films. 

“She was a bad habit,” says Sudhir Mishra, her partner, whose films she edited. “I mean I could shoot the film, give it to her and stop worrying about it. She was a storyteller, and we always said she did the final rewrite of the film on the editing table. 

She worked on the entire structure, the rhythm of the film. In my case, she helped me focus, because I tended to digress.  She told you what your film was about—what you had shot, that is—not what was in your head.  I used to make my films for her…”

Renu Saluja used to be deeply involved with every film she did, right from the writing stage. Often she attended the shoot and gave valuable inputs, which invariably made a remarkable difference to the shots.

Shekhar Kapur, whose Bandit Queen she edited, wrote about her on his blog: “The most striking thing about Renu was her compassion...There were things in the final version of Bandit Queen that were definitely not in the shooting of it.  She was always in empathy with the film and its characters...We directors are very, very strange sometimes, and we need to have editors who can hold our hand and guide us through our periods of doubt and eccentricities. Renu was that friend.”

Several editors who graduated from FTII trained or worked with her. She was never insecure about sharing her knowledge and “she did it without any condescension,” says Mishra.

“She was warm and firm, there was no mollycoddling at work. That’s another major contribution of hers—the amount of editors she helped professionally.

Those who have worked with her say that no editor since (perhaps Sreekar Prasad comes close), has her talent and involvement.
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