Dibakar Banerjee opened up recently about being ‘angry and frustrated’ after his film Tees got shelved. He revealed that he had to take therapy afterwards. The unreleased film, produced by Netflix, was screened recently at the Dharamshala International Film Festival.
During a conversation with Moneycontrol, Dibakar recounted the toll it had on his head when the film was shelved. “I went through anger, frustration, depression and at that time, I couldn’t tell. But both my daughters kept saying that ‘papa, you are always angry’. After that, I started therapy, and I was fine,” he said.
He said that Netflix was supportive throughout the process of making the film. “There wasn’t even a single obstacle from their end, except for one little fight about casting. I won three of those fights about casting, and for one, I had to negotiate. Even after we made the film, we told them about the changes that we should make. We were self-censoring, so we made the list. Netflix said that you should come from a position of strength. After that, from what we know, Netflix’s entire team changed. And in all these corporate companies, when the teams change, the things approved by the old team are sometimes partially or completely shelved,” he said.
He added, “If you file a case against executives, or they have death threats against them, or troll them, or file a few non-bailable cases against them, push them into paying Rs 20-30 lakh to lawyers in political cases, they will get scared and people will start self-censoring.”
At the same time, Dibakar said that he enjoys fighting. “I have become an addict now; I enjoy fighting. I see myself as damaged and partially insane. Until the time I see myself as crazy and blind, I won’t be able to see that I am a part of the society. As a society, we are now blind and crazy, and deaf. We can’t see what’s right in front of us. I call it the great project of unseeing, so I also started unseeing. My job is just to make the film in as less money as possible and get out,” he said.
Dibakar’s last theatrical release as LSD 2, which released earlier this year. Tees stars Manisha Koirala, Divya Dutta, Naseeruddin Shah, Huma Qureshi, Shashank Arora and Zoya Hussain in pivotal roles.
