Calcutta boy Abhiroop Basu is on his way to the Odense Film Festival (OFF) in Denmark with his short film Gudgudi. Set against the backdrop of the 2002 Gujarat riots, the 25-minute short has been viscerally shot and focuses on violence against women during the riots.

Led by Rajshri Deshpande, who has delivered stellar acts in Sacred Games, Trial By Fire and many more projects of repute, Gudgudi will be screened at OFF on August 27, 29 and 31.

It is one among the only two Indian films selected under the International Competition at the festival, that features 52 films from a worldwide submission of 4,140 films from 40 countries. t2 chatted with Abhiroop, a South Point School and St. Xavier’s College alumnus who has made many an impactful short in the last few years, to know more.

What prompted you to make Gudgudi?

I try and make films which are connected to my experiences or on subjects that excite me. We are living in times of chaos and about two years ago, I felt I wanted to say something about the history of our country.

I read an article which took me back to the Gujarat riots (of 2002). It was a survival story about how three women had chosen a certain method to save themselves in the middle of the riots. There were stories of how women were being gangraped even after they had died and the others who were hiding had to watch in horror because if they reacted, they would give themselves away and meet the same fate.

This took me to a Schindler’s List kind of a moment. I thought it is cinematic and though the story is dark, it also shows the innate quality that we humans have to survive against all odds.

I didn’t want this to become a Hindu-Muslim story. I thought I could look at the violence that happened during the riots through the perspective of women. During my research, I found that about 150 Hindu women were raped and murdered at that time. This number is not talked about much and it came as a shock to me because it goes against what the popular narrative regarding the Gujarat riots is.

I then realised that women are just flesh, they don’t have a religion. That was the lens through which I wanted to say something about the riots, about such a tragedy in our history. That culminated into what Gudgudi is today.

Like the women in the film, I felt a certain sense of claustrophobia when I watched Gudgudi. How did you build that?

I have been trying to spend more time with cinema over the years and with every film, the aim is to touch reality a little closer. When I was at the Odense Film Festival with my short film Meal (starring Adil Hussain) in 2019, I saw a lot of foreign films and many of them were so visceral that they made me feel like I was part of the setting and the action. That is the kind of realism I wanted to bring into my films.

For Gudgudi, I did considerable research. I also spoke to a few victims. I hadn’t experienced the riots myself but I wanted to create an authentic atmosphere of that. I wanted to make a film which, for 25 minutes, made you forget whether you are in Calcutta or Bombay. In Gudgudi, I take you back to that time and atmosphere and leave you there for 25 minutes and then I yank you out of it. I wanted to take that approach.

We shot the film in three days. The last sequence is a one-take shot of 10 minutes. The film faced a lot of hurdles and to say that this is my labour of love would be an understatement.

What does a chameleonic actor like Rajshri Deshpande bring to Gudgudi?

I always had Pankaj Tripathi in mind when I wrote my short film Laali because it is an actor-driven film. It was about one actor, one location. In Gudgudi, I wanted a mixture of faces, all of which had to be interesting enough to convey a lot. We all know about Rajshri’s acting prowess and what she brings to the table. While writing Gudgudi, I somehow saw her face in the last shot. The name of the character is Fatima — though she remains nameless in the film — and for her, I could only see Rajshri’s face.

As you said, Rajshri is one of those few actors who is almost like a chameleon. She can hide behind characters. At the end of Gudgudi, she breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the viewer so as to almost say that we are all responsible. I needed someone like her who could facially emote a lot of complex emotions.

I had seen her in Sexy Durga and in Trial By Fire. I wanted to work with her, I found this was the right fit for her and I approached her with the story. Very importantly, she has a very good social work background. She acts 10 days in a month and on 20 days, she is out doing social work. I wanted someone who would be empathetic enough to be able to understand this film and why we are doing it.

What is heartening is that we had 60-70 per cent women working in this film in various capacities. That was a conscious decision because I am a man telling a story about two women. So I wanted that balance to be there.

What were the most challenging bits to shoot?

That scene when we see the man molesting a dead body that isn’t a dead body, but you realise that when you watch the film. We shot with a minor and that was tricky. I had to be very careful in terms of how I shot it. The mother of the child was sitting next to me and once that shot was done, she hugged me tight. She told me that when the girl gets older, she will realise the importance of what she had done. Even the little girl knew what was expected of her and anyway in schools today, kids are taught very early about good touch-bad touch.

The subject is very dark but the title Gudgudi, meaning tickle, is happy and fun. Did you decide on this title right from the get-go?

When I was writing it, I was very emotional because there is no greater tragedy than man killing man. My takeaway from Oppenheimer was that one man made a bomb to kill another man and lived with that guilt forever.

The word ‘gudgudi’ has resonance with the story. It is a karmic kind of justice in a way. The reason why it is named Gudgudi, the tickle, is that the girl may say something so small that she doesn’t realise what she is saying, but the enormity of what she said — that tickle — has a different meaning. I thought was a very fitting name.

What does premiering at Odense mean for you and the film?

It is one of the top short film festivals in Europe. It is going to be my third year at Odense. After Meal went to Odense, it had a ripple effect and enabled the film to go to 40 other film festivals.

Odense has only become bigger... this is its 47th year and the submission rate has gone up. I am very happy that Gudgudi is premiering at Odense. It is the right platform for its journey to start.

What are you doing next?

There are two feature films which are in development. Making these short films over the years has helped me understand what my voice is about and what I can do with it. Hopefully, one of the features will go on the floor next year. Since I write and direct, I take more time. Both these films should, hopefully, be theatrical releases. One of them definitely is.