Regrettably, not too many people saw Kanika Verma's flawed but passionate film. Could it be because the film didn't have a saleable cast?
"Of course, we'd have loved Rani Mukherjee to play the rape victim," Kanika tells. "And of course we would have liked to release the film at leisure after it was sent to the Bangkok, Palm Springs and Berlin festivals where it's invited...and when we didn't have three other releases breathing down our neck.
"But we had no choice but to rush-release 'Dansh', thanks to Guddu Dhanoa and Ashwini Chowdhary who decided to launch a quickie 'Siskiyan' based on the same subject...Death & The Maiden."
A Delhi University graduate who never thought she would be a filmmaker until she assisted Hansal Mehta, Kanika doesn't deny her film's lack of originality.
"But my film is not based on Roman Polanski's film. It's inspired by the play by Ariel Dorfman on which the Ben Kingsley-Sigourney Weaver-Stuart Wilson film was based. I read the play, then saw it being performed by the Indian People's Theatre Association. I think 'Siskiyan' is perhaps based on the film. Neha Dhupia is made up to resemble Sigourney Weaver."
Pausing to consider the devastating ruination of her film, Kanika continues, "When our film was more than 80 percent complete they suddenly launched 'Siskiyan'. I was shocked. It was by sheer chance that I got to know of it."
"Our cinematographer and theirs were friends. I tried to dissuade Ashwini Chowdhary. When it didn't work, we had no choice but to speed up our release, thereby forcing them to vacate the Sep 2 slot which they had initially booked. Who would want to see two films based on 'Death & The Maiden'? Ideally we'd have liked to wait two more months."
Comparisons with "Siskiyan" make Kanika mad. "They're actually comparing me to Guddu Dhanoa (the producer of 'Siskiyan'). We can't be thinking the same cinema. I'm struggling against apathy at every step. Some reviews have failed to understand the significance of Mizoram being at the backdrop of our story."
But would "Dansh" have worked even without the spectre of "Siskiyan" considering it's such a dark
film? "No it isn't. At the end of it all, the film ends on a very hopeful note. I wanted to show what evil
lurks beneath the most decent appearance. I didn't design 'Dansh' as a rape story but a political
parable." Other film clashes that killed both releases:
"Aaj Ka MLA Ram Avtar" (starring Rajesh Khanna) and "Inquilab" (Amitabh Bachchan)
"Shakti" (Amitabh Bachchan) and "Farz Aur Kanoon" (Jeetendra)
"The Legend Of Bhagat Singh" (Ajay Devgan) and "23 March 1931 Shaheed" (Bobby Deol)
"Naina" (Urmila Matondkar) and "Nazar" (Meera)
