Veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who had earlier confirmed he'd be making Masoom's sequel, recently stated that he is trying to rediscover the creative naivety that shaped the first movie. As the filmmaker is set to collaborate with Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah again for the sequel, he opened up about working on the movie.
With Masoom being screened at the Indian Film Festival Germany, Shekhar Kapur is present at the festival, where he spoke about the movie at length. He revealed how he was completely inexperienced at the time of making Masoom, and that worked out for the film.
"It's like an attempt to go back to my childhood. And how do I become naive again? Because even Picasso said that. They asked him, 'what do you really want?' He said, 'I want to paint like I've never made a painting before.' And that was Masoom," he revealed, taking a walk doen memory lane.
"Masoom was made by a person that did not know a thing about it. So I just said, 'okay, let me try.' And so I just had to concentrate on the story because I didn't know what a camera was and how that worked and everything. So maybe something worked," he shared.
He also disclosed how it still makes him emotional when someone tells him that they loved Masoom. But at the same time, it also makes him wonder what it is about the film that still move people.
"I still don't understand because remember, I was not a trained filmmaker. I'd never made a film. I'd never assisted anybody. I had not studied filmmaking. I knew nothing about film and then one day I just made a film and I was a chartered accountant in London," he stated.
"In fact, I worked in Berlin as an accountant also for a while, then I went back and I made a film. There was a certain naivety to it. And there's an innocence to when you're absolutely naive about what you're doing. You do things differently," he continued.
So, what are his thoughts about making Masoom again?
"When people say, can you make Masoom again? I say, 'Can you make me naive again?'" he said.
Masoom, a 1983 film, is based on American author Erich Segal's book Man, Woman And Child. A story of love, betrayal, and the complexities of a family, Masoom chronicled a happily married couple whose lives turn upside down when the husband's illegitimate son from a past affair enters their lives.
Organised by the Embassy of India, Berlin & The Tagore Centre, the Indian Film Festival Germany began on Friday.