Venkatesh Maha on the impact of the medium

Venkatesh Maha may have directed only one original feature film, Care of Kancharapalem (his second, Uma Maheshwara Ugra Roopasya was an adaptation of Maheshinte Pratikaram) so far, but he has established himself as a voice to watch out for in Telugu cinema. In a recent interview with Movie companionthe director talks about the impact of cinema and why it is imperative that filmmakers have a degree of social responsibility while creating their films.

“The purpose of art is to incite change. If the director wants to make something completely to his liking, then why are they asking the public to pay money to watch it? They can show it in their private space to their friends and relatives, right?” asks Venkatesh. “But a film is made to express something, whether people agree with it or not is a different aspect. But personal expression that creates a negative impact on society is not right.

Venkatesh adds that filmmakers tend to gloss over some inappropriate choices and portrayals using certain techniques and seamlessly convey problematic elements. “Sometimes the audience can’t see the true intentions of the director, say if you use great music. That is why cinema or any other media is also used for propaganda. It affects the audience. The power of cinema is that you bring together different forms (visual, musical and dialogue) to create an expression.”

“Cinema is more powerful than God,” claims the director. Elaborating on the statement, Venkatesh says, “See, even a teacher has more powers than God. In fact, all mediums have this kind of power because you can install any thought into a person’s mind. However, people are looking for entertainment. While only those who want to be educated go to a teacher, every person, regardless of their education and social background, comes to watch movies. It is easily accessible to everyone. You can just sit on the couch and watch a movie without any effort.

“We absolutely believe that the thoughts we plant in the minds of the audience should help people win at the end of the day. This is our basic principle. We strongly believe that cinema affects the audience. I don’t like the argument that cinema should be consumed just like cinema. People don’t see cinema just as cinema. If people watch a movie just like a movie, why would there be ugly fights on social media? Even recently, a man committed murder and cited a movie as inspiration. Using dialogues, songs and background music, we create and send a new person out of the theater. When the impact on society is evident, we must take responsibility.”

However, this is not a simple, binary argument. If a person’s mental state is unstable enough to commit a heinous act like murder, motivated entirely by a movie, aren’t his/her social environment, parents and teachers complicit? Isn’t it a collective failure of society? Venkatesh says, “Yes, this is the collective failure of society, I agree. But since we’re making movies, let’s all be responsible for what we say.