Press freedom under strain, says Suhasini Mulay at Gauhati Press Club

Guwahati, Jan 16: The Gauhati Press Club (GPC) hosted veteran actress and documentary filmmaker Suhasini Mulay as its ‘Guest of the Month’ at its premises recently.

The five-time national award-winning actor and documentary filmmaker interacted with local journalists in a session moderated by Khagen Kalita, senior journalist and president of the GPC.

The actress spoke about her childhood, her mother – eminent film historian and documentary filmmaker Vijaya Mulay, her education in Canada. She proceeded to talk about her diverse roles in commercial and parallel cinema.

Apart from her work as an actor and filmmaker, Mulay is known for her candid and bold take on several issues and she initiated the session by talking about how press freedom is “under attack” at the moment.

“Media freedom is under attack these days; I feel very strongly about it. We have reached a stage where everyone who is not conforming is dealt with strongly. Journalists are arrested for asking questions; people are arrested for joining a protest. I thought I was living in a democracy where we are allowed to ask questions and have discussions but that doesn’t seem to be happening anymore,” she said.

Mulay also spoke about her disappointment regarding the changes being made to the RTI, which will affect the transparency in governance, a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.

As an artiste, who has spent over four decades in the film industry, Mulay is happy that cinema has become so democratic now with the advent of digital media.

“With smartphones in every hand, everybody has the scope to say their thing, whether good or bad, which is an exciting time to be in. The entire population can talk,” she added.

During the interaction, the actress recalled how Jahnu Barua approached her for his film Aparoopa.

“We used to often meet outside film studios. He was living with Kulbhushan Kharbanda at a PG and I met him there many times. Aparoopa was funded by NFDC and in those days it took quite a while for the money to be released. By the time Jahnu was ready to shoot, his actress became unavailable as she got pregnant. That’s when he approached me. My only question was where would he shoot, and when he said Assam, I instantly agreed. I wanted to visit Assam,” Mulay said.

She also spoke about how cinema has always been on two paths – commercial and parallel. But Mulay is disappointed that commercial cinema is more political now.

“Religious dominance is the norm and there’s incredible projection of violence, both mental and physical. And there’s also the huge question of ‘otherisation’ of indigenous people and minorities, not just Muslims, but all minorities,” she said.