'Pluralism can't be erased from India'

HYDERABAD: We rung the death knell for the Urdu language the day we said: Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan...Urdu, Muslim, Pakistan.
Who else but filmmaker-producer Mahesh Bhatt could have so blatantly, yet articulately, analyzed this critical literary problem that others prefer to speak about in hushed tones. "How can one associate Urdu with Pakistan when it's always been a language that people of this country spoke?" Bhatt asked, reminiscing the times when "film titles used to be in Hindi, English and Urdu"."But it has faded out now. Because Urdu is not profitable, it isn't a language that can be used as a tool of power," he rued.
Incidentally, Urdu is the language in focus at the ongoing Hyderabad Literary Festival-2015.
Tell him about India's much publicized cultural pluralism being on its death bed too, and Bhatt vehemently disagrees. "India is a country of immigrants. Where will you stop even if you want to erase this 'pluralism'...and where will you go? If you look at the people offering prayers at the Benaras ghat, you'll see they have radically diverse views. There are the hedonists, the shiv-worshippers, the Aghoris, the tantriks. Kumbh mela is a sight for Gods to worship," he reasoned, terming pluralism as India's greatest attribute. "That is why I chose to wear my mother's faith on my sleeve despite being asked not to. I was told Gandhi was killed for this, don't do it. But I still did," the great admirer of the 'Gandhian spirit' said, expressing delight at US President Barack Obama's decision to visit the Raj Ghat on Sunday.
Of course, he seemed unsure about whether the state could guarantee plurality - upholding what happened to artiste M F Hussain as a case in point. "He had to die abroad. What could the Congress do? Nothing," he said.
As the conversation steered towards the Charlie Hebdo incident and the freedom of expression, Bhatt, in his usual no-holes-barred style, pointed out how a discussion on this brought with it a debate on the right to offend. "That is also a right. Try and crack a joke on the Holocaust there and see what they do. They'll put you in jail, maybe because even they believe in 'thus far and no further'," he argued.
Closer home, however, he found no reason why the controversial film "MSG" needed to be kept out of theatres. "You may have a problem with its aesthetics, but that doesn't mean you can't show the film. Let the man have a field day," Bhatt smirked.
He went on to narrate tales from his days as a director that were ridden with struggles with the political class. "When I did Zakhm in 1998, I had to fight with the right wing government to release it. But ultimately, even Muslims in Gujarat stormed the theatres and stalled screenings!" Bhatt sighed, wishing cinema could go back to the times of Satyajit Ray and Raj Kapoor.
He also hoped the market demand was different today. "I did a movie called CityLights and its lifetime business was Rs 8.5 crore. My daughter did Jism 2 and its lifetime business was Rs 42 crore! We have now, therefore, aggressively started making movies that the market wants to see. And in the last 15 years, the economic clout that I have is something I did not get in the first 25 years," Bhatt confessed.
After all, he has never been the man who minced words.