MUMBAI: Asif Kapadia quickly scans the ballroom, as he’s welcomed on the stage for the last session of the recently concluded FICCI Frames 2016. The director finds comfort among like-minded people, and the Renaissance Convention Center’s ballroom, filled with few of the industry’s noted movie directors, producers, journalists, actors and several enthusiasts provides him the necessary familiarity. Kapadia’s motive behind attending the event is largely restricted to the discussion on the career as a movie director he had embarked on almost two decades ago.
The director’s first feature film ‘The Warrior’ earned him a fellowship in Film Directing from The Arts Foundation, and two BAFTA awards. “Gut instinct,” explained Kapadia, “drives me into making a movie.” With no ‘cinema’ background whatsoever, direction came as a sweet accident to him. Kapadia educated the attendees on his evolution and the process as a director through the clips of ‘The Warrior’, ‘Senna’ and ‘Amy’ – three movies that eventually put the 43-year-old amongst the his elite counterparts.
The ‘The Warrior’ director, still celebrating the global success of ‘Senna’, began the three-year long production for ‘Amy’ following a suggestion by his producer-friend James Gay-Rees. The tragic end to British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse’s short-yet-illustrious career left the music universe in utter shock, and Kapadia was no different. Kapadia emphasized on how documentaries differ from feature films, and also informed that the vital element in the former’s case needs to be the opening scene. “For a movie, the trio of director-producer-scriptwriter forms the base towards the initial execution. For a documentary, however, the link changes to director-producer-editor.”
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Various aspects, apart from the initial gut instinct, motivated Kapadia to execute Amy’s life into a documentary. The success behind ‘Senna’ was only one of them. “It was only once I started working on the project that I realised how people perceived the singer’s career and the life that she lived. I disliked how some people repeatedly pointed out her drug habits, and the shenanigans, and things she was notorious for. In fact, people’s attitude towards her life, before and after her death, pushed me further in creating ‘Amy’. I said, ‘You know what, because of the way people like you treated Amy, I am going to direct the movie, and show how Amy was more than that you claim’ and I hope the movie exactly managed to fulfill the desire,” said Kapadia, who seemed noticeably passionate about the topic.
Kapadia adopted an unfamiliar technique while approaching the project. The director did not carry any piece of document or paper during the research, and completely focused on the recorder to produce an intimate, sometimes confidential, conversation with people who played some role or another in Amy’s 27-year-long life. “A recorder is all I carried. I ensured that people I interviewed found the essential connection with me before they shared their respective stories. This process occupied most part of my research. Some people needed a lot of convincing, and that was understandably fair and expected.
Many, including Amy’s fans, believed the songwriter wrote ‘Rehab’ upon her father’s intervention in her growing drug habits, but as Kapadia explains through the documentary that Nick Shymansky – Amy’s ex manager – performed a crucial role towards the inspiration behind the composition (eventually earning her three Grammys.) The makers of ‘Amy’ have been at loggerheads with the singer’s family since the release of the documentary, and Kapadia credits one of his directorial mantras for the successful projection of the late songwriter – “If you spend time worrying, you will end up not doing it. I am not afraid of screwing it up. I am willing to fail as long as I am learning.” Kapadia brought the self-taught attitude of ‘absence of fear towards failure’ several times during the session, and further used Hitchcock’s journey to success as a mode of inspiration.
The practice of extensive research coupled with patience and the relentless habit of achieving precision helped Kapadia while uncovering some of the aspects related to the singer. On asked if the movie had made the similar impact without the ‘never-heard-before’ songs composed by Winehouse, Kapadia replied, “Yes and No. Most of the research time was dedicated to understanding her music. Why she does what she does, and as a director, it’s severely important in ensuring the audience learns something surprisingly or shockingly new about the subject.” Kapadia’s projects so far had no parallels with Bollywood, however, as he points out, “If you look at ‘Amy’, it sounds like a Bollywood movie. A sequence of story, then a song, the story continues, and then another song. Eventually, we managed to justify what we created.” The soundtrack for the movie earned Amy her second nomination at this year’s Brit Awards for ‘Best British Female Solo Artist’.
“She was special, she was beautiful,” concluded Kapadia on the factors he took away from his own tribute to Amy Winehouse. The director’s next documentary subject, like Senna and Amy, had an impact on the global platform, and definitely has to be the most recognizable icon he has so far worked on – Maradona. ‘Amy’ attracted a few controversies, and upon asked if the status and popularity of the subject provides additional pressure, Kapadia calmly replied, “Of course, it does. That is where your expertise and commitment comes to work. I’ll ensure the same happens with ‘Maradona'”.
