Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra: There are millions of stories waiting to be told in Delhi

Be it 'Dilli 6', 'Rang De Basanti' or 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's films are a reflection of the years he's spent in Delhi. As a child studying in Delhi's Air Force Bal Bharati School, he used to watch MiG-21 planes fly overhead. When reports of MiG crashes started coming, it made him curious, and later, they became a part of 'Rang De Basanti', which was inspired by his college days in Delhi."The group of five friends was my group, actually, and those five people are still my friends," says the filmmaker, adding, "Delhi is my city and I am a storyteller. Your stories come from the land you belong to. Delhi has been a part of my composition and therefore, most of the stories that I choose to share are from here."
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On November 27, in the Delhi Times session at the Times LitFest, Rakeysh will share how Delhi is an intrinsic part of his work. The filmmaker tells us that for his movies, he explores places in Delhi that many people don't know about. "For 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', we recreated the refugee colony Milkha grew up in before coming to Delhi. In the Tughlaqabad Fort, we created a refugee camp that had originally been in Purana Quila."
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Analysing Delhi's evolving character, he says, "Delhi still has that unique mix of old and new that lends itself perfectly as a backdrop to different kind of stories. Delhi has grown and changed so much over the years. When I was growing up here, it was a bureaucratic centre, then a union territory, then a state that grew fast, and now it is not just Delhi, it is NCR ' if someone is travelling to Noida or Gurgaon, even they say that they are going to Delhi. Delhi has so many different layers and parts, but has retained its old world charm while on its way to becoming a great city. There are places like Humayun's Tomb and Lodhi Garden that represent that charm that Delhi is known for." He adds that there are still millions of stories that are waiting to be told in Delhi. "The list is countless ' there are stories about the Emergency when we look at the political landscape, stories about the first Asian Games in Delhi, stories of the time when we won gold in hockey and teams used to train in Delhi. It's a dynamic place which has become the melting pot of so many stories and cultures," says Rakeysh.