Have Always Been a Filmmaker on the Margins: Dibakar Banerjee

Dibakar Banerjee last directed a short film for Netflix’s ‘Ghost Stories’.

Dibakar Banerjee talks about his journey as a filmmaker in Bollywood.

(Photo: The Quint)

With films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Shanghai and Oye! Lucky! Lucky! Oye!, filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee has created a niche for himself. His latest release was his short zombie film for the anthology Ghost Stories on Netflix.

On our latest episode of OffScreen, he tells us about how he feels like a fringe filmmaker, how actors have evolved over the years to make better choices and why the advent of OTT platforms is freeing for him.

“When I started filming for Khosla Ka Ghosla, there weren’t too many films of that kind that were being made. Over the years, several filmmakers, like Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap, with their films created that change without realising it,” says Dibakar.

He also says that when he saw Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool hit theatres, he was convinced that Khosla Ka Ghosla would get a release. “The actors have also become a lot more open to experimentation over the last decade. From the time I started making films to now, there has been a huge change,” he tells us.

In OffScreen, we recount stories from the world of movies and web series, mostly featuring people who toil behind the scenes, people who basically work off-screen to create magic on screen. We also bring to you fascinating stories of actors that you might not have been privy to.

Producer: Nandakumar Rammohan
Editor: Ashish MacCune