Blending documentary and drama

Why do you liken One Day in Cochin to a cinematic soap opera?

It sort of works in the same way as soap operas which have multiple thread narratives weaved together. It deals with a little more than soap operas, (which is) social issues. But soap operas also deal with social issues.

The characters are from Cochin and play themselves…

There's only one actor— he plays the broker in the oil-for-food scam. That was based on a news report at the time. What you hear the news reader reading (in the film) is actually verbatim from whatever was reported on those court cases with AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, the big drug giants who were involved in illegally taking the oil-for-food money.

How were the other characters selected?

Well, I knew them; and the ones I didn't, I looked out for. I wanted different representations in Cochin. I didn't go for what Cochin is normally known for— the Jewish community, which is tiny now. I wasn't interested in hitting the tourist spots.

But tourism is Cochin's main income. You can't talk about Fort Kochi without talking about tourists. That's why you have these tourists (in the film). For me as a filmmaker, that was the fun—taking those real scenarios, real people, and putting them together in a feature form, a classical cinematic experience.

How much of the film is scripted?

None of it, initially. I started to film with a seamless picture. I knew the order and what had to happen. And that didn't change. In terms of dialogue, I knew what I wanted to have said. But I didn't want to put words in people's mouths or make them say lines they wouldn't feel comfortable with, because none of them are actors—you can't over-rehearse them. (We were) telling them they're not performing, they're simply being. I gave them scripts and they simply had to put it into their own words.

When the octogenarian Englishman Kenneth Bandey speaks, it doesn't seem scripted at all…

That is him. It's not the only piece; there are several bits in the film that are not scripted. That was what I was trying to do— make it seamless. So you don't fall into the Ken Bandey (part) and suddenly think, 'Oh, I'm looking at a documentary now'. That could have happened between the more constructed scenes and the more reportage scenes. I think I've got around it in the way that I covered it.

Even when Ken Bandey meets Pip—and that was the first time he'd ever seen her— all of that is exactly how the conversation went. But I had my camera on the track so I could cover it in a dramatic way, as against in a reportage way.

You call yourself 'issue based'…

I go for projects which appeal to me; they either promote something I believe in or shed light on matters I think people should be aware about… (My films) tend to be about oil and pollution. We've even got a little bit on the poster, 'end oil now'.

Cochin has a place in your family history as well…

My great-great grandfather in the 1850s started a company called Pierce Leslie, which is still running. And my grandfather started the first tea brokers in Cochin. My father was born in Calcutta. My father's mother's side all came from here— they came to Calcutta in the 1770s. And two great uncles were river boat captains on the Hooghly.

Do you plan to make a documentary on Kolkata at any time?

I'd love to do something in a similar way. It takes money, so I'd have to get the cash to do it. But yes, I'd love to.


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