Goa not an ideal place to shoot films: Tapan Biswas

PANAJI - Goa is not an ideal place to shoot a film because the technology required to make a technically good movie is not available here, acclaimed producer Tapan Biswas says.

Biswas, whose “Just Another Love Story” is one of the 18 films in the fray for the coveted Golden Peacock award at the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI), said it is necessary that Indian films be technically on par with those made in the west.

“Technically you have to make a film very well, else it will not stand internationally,” Biswas said when asked why he has not shot any films in Goa.

“Content-wise we are there (on par with Western films), but technically we still have a long way to go. I took full care to see that my film cannot be questioned technically. I don’t want people saying that the film is lacking technically,” he told reporters here.

“Just Another Love Story” has won the best film award at a New York film festival as well as been selected for the Panorama section at the Berlin film festival.

Biswas is hoping that his film will make it this time too. “I’m definitely expecting an award,” he said.

The film is the first in which the acclaimed director has acted. He has directed 18 films in the past.

This is an unusual film in the Indian cultural context, in the way it handles issues of gender, sexuality and same-sex relationships.

One of the androgynous men, who is still alive (age 71), is interviewed in the film for a proposed documentary to be made by a young gay filmmaker.

As he reveals the most poignant moments and incidents of his chequered life as a ‘heroine’, the gay director-protagonist with his bisexual cinematographer partner as well as those in their immediate circle experience similar yet different conflicts mirrored in their own lives.

This is a bilingual film in English and Bengali, culturally representing the co-existence of the cosmopolitan and the regional.

Biswas, however, does not want his film to be seen as a gay love story but as a human love story.

“For me, this is a human love story. I rejected all offers to be screened at gay and lesbian film festivals. I don’t want it to be seen that way,” he said.