"‘English August' Was Both Maddening And Rewarding": Rahul Bose On His 1994 Debut Heading To Venice After 32 Years
· Free Press Journal
Rahul Bose reminisces about his 1994 debut film which 32 years later, will have its world premiere at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival in September
The Dev Benegal-directed English August was declared ‘lost’ after the film’s negatives were destroyed by floods in Prasad Labs’ storage facility. But in 2020, a 35 mm print was discovered at the National Film Archives of India. Restored in 4K, the satirical comedy is now gearing up for a screening in the ‘Venice Classics’ section and Rahul Bose, who plays the protagonist, Agastya Sen, couldn’t be happier.
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Excerpts from the interview:
Your debut film is returning after three decades. Will you be at the Venice International Film Festival for the screening?
No, I won’t be in Venice as there will be no Q-and-A session, but I will definitely attend the screening in Mumbai whenever it’s scheduled. I’m happy for Anuradha Parikh (producer), Dev Benegal, and all those who down the years, have wanted to see the film or relive it. The Film Heritage Foundation, led by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, does an extremely good job of restoring films. I hope English August returns to the theatres too, even if it is a limited release, and then starts streaming on OTT so more people can watch it. But that’s the producers’ decision and dictated by commercial considerations.
After all these years, do you think the film will connect with a European audience?
I think European cinema has moved and mutated in the last 35 years and, in my opinion, this subject has been traversed in different ways in their cinema. But in India, thanks to its quirkiness and wit, English August is still fresh.
So, would today’s Gen Z find a connect with Gen X’s Agastya Sen, the English-speaking, IAS officer who is sent for a year’s training to Madna, the hottest town in the country, where he feels like a foreigner in his own country?
Well, the sense of dislocation and alienation within a country as large and complex as ours is still very much a reality. And even though different parts of India are more connected now, some places still feel remote and culturally distant.
How much did you empathize with this character?
Back then, I would say a lot, though I was more exposed to that India than Agastya. But since then, thanks to rugby, films and my NGOs, I’ve travelled from the Andamans to Kashmir, from the Rajasthan border to the Sundarbans, from Manipur to Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari down south. Most of my speeches in the hinterland of the country, I make in Hindi. Agastya could never have done that! There’s very little of that Rahul Bose left in me, so today, I wouldn’t be able to identify very much with Agastya.
What do you remember of the shoot?
Everything! Limited budget, filming in villages, poor food, iffy hygiene and pretty hot weather. English August was a curious mix—it was one of the toughest, most challenging shoots of my career, both maddening and rewarding.
And you still wanted to be an actor?
Absolutely! It was uncomfortable, but every moment was worth it. Even back then, I knew English August would be very special at best, and a different and interesting film at worst—because the script was a cracker.
Did you imagine it'd be the first Indian film in English to break the stranglehold of mainstream Bollywood and start a trend of similar indie films?
This industry doesn’t allow you to imagine that because there are so many steps in a film’s life cycle where anything can get wrong. The script may not get written, you may not land the role you want, funding may stop suddenly, the shoot may be disrupted, it may never release, and even if it did, like it happened with another film of mine which opened a day after the 26/11 terror attacks, no one might watch it. So, no, I did not expect it would become this popular and prove that India has a captive audience that understands and appreciates English language films.
But the trend, as you call it, was short-lived, around five-six years. The last one being my 2001 film, Everybody Says I’m Fine. After that people started making urban films whose lingua franca should have been English, but which were made in Hindi. It was a clever way of increasing their reach, but it wasn’t creatively honest.
Agasthya’s escape from the stifling heat and the culture shock was to retreat into his secret world of erotic fantasies. One remembers your masturbation and frontal nudity scenes, what was the audience’s reaction to them 32 years ago?
Not much really, the film was far more textured and layered for people to just focus on the sex and nudity. In fact, I would say that we have since become less broadminded about art and its depiction.
What was Upamanyu Chatterjee’s—the film was based on his 1988 novel—reaction to the film?
He liked it, and my performance too, very much. In fact, when we met at the Kolkata Literary Festival a year ago, he spoke about English August very fondly.
Is there a book like English August that you would now want to bring to the screen?
(After a thoughtful pause) Not really. In the last 15-20 years, I haven’t come across any book that leaps out at me and has me exclaiming, “Wow, this would make a great film!”
But I have written two scripts, and I’m just finishing the third. Happily, there is already interest in the contemporary action thriller and if everything goes well, it could roll next year.
I’ve also penned a very funny yet poignant crime drama, and then, there is a tribute to Mumbai with all its attendant darkness and delight.
Will you be directing these films?
Yes. The next 10 years, you will see me directing more than acting. Audiences can breathe a sigh of relief!