Rensil D'Silva's Terrorism Trauma: How he was forced to move out of London

Rensil D'Silva's Terrorism Trauma: How he was forced to move out of London
Monday, May 18, 2009 12:35 IST
By Subhash K Jha, Santa Banta News Network
/> Shooting for Karan Johar's production of his untitled film on global terrorism has been a terror experience for Rensil D'Silva.

After a warm invition from the Film Commission of Britain, Rensil's film was to be shot in London. But had to be moved out when permission was denied at the last minute.

"What was done was worse than denial of permission, " says the angry writer-director. "They wouldn't tell us an outright no.

But they put so many obstacles in front of our crew we had no option but to move out of London and shoot in Philadelphia where were were warmly welcomed. If it wasn't for my producer Karan Johar who stood by me through all this upheaval I'd have never been able to make this film."

In fact Rensil's friends thought he was nuts to direct this story as his first project.

"And they were nearly proven right when everything fell apart in London. Our timing was wrong. We went at a time when the inquiry commissions were scrutinizing the 7/7 tube-station bombings.

Millions were being spent on advertising the London tube stations as being safe and inviting. The last thing they needed was a film shot in the underground of London about tube- station bombings."

Now after having shot all the tube-station sequences in Philadelphia, Rensil returns to New York to shoot the rest of the film. "We'll do a bit of cheating. Philadelphia will fill in for New York. No one can tell the difference."

How far has 26/11 changed Rensil's film? "I'm shooting the film exactly the way I wrote it initially. What has happened in Mumbai doesn't alter the worldview on terrorism. It only strengthens it.

I've been warned that there has been a saturation as far as films on terrorism are concerned. But I believe every filmmaker has his own Take on terrorism. Unfortunatelty the alignment of terrorism with Islam remains unchanged."

That's where Rensil sees a problem. "People would object to some of my film's ideas and my characters' ideology. But we can't turn away from the truth. At least I can't."
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