The danger of policemen without a sense of humour
It’s not required under the Constitution for Indians to have a sense of humour, but the absence of one can definitely be dangerous in the hands of the police. That is the predicament filmmaker Sanjay Gupta finds himself in.
Gupta has never been accused of anything criminal, but he has been caught once having a conversation with an underworld don. That was a decade ago, when he used to be an acolyte of Sanjay Dutt. In that incident, Dutt is having an alleged conversation with Chhota Shakeel and hands over the phone to Gupta, who then gets lessons on filmmaking from the don. Here’s a snatch of a transcript of the tapped conversation that Outlook had published in 2002:
Chhota Shakeel: Beech mein jo scene cut ho jaate hain na… (The scenes that get cut in the middle)
Sanjay Gupta: Haanji, haanji…
Chhota Shakeel: Usme thoda mixing mein dhyaan rakho (Pay attention to the mixing of the scene)
Sanjay Gupta:Ji haan, karoonga, bhai (Yes I will, bhai)
You could also accuse Gupta of having a large collection of Korean movies from which he drew inspiration scene by scene for movies he made. But by that token, three-fourths of Bollywood should be sharing a prison cell with him.
Early this week, Gupta found himself being interrogated by the police, but it had nothing to do with any of the above. It was about a press conference invitation. Sent for his movie Shootout at Wadala, the invitation was couched as a summons by the Mumbai Police Commissioner. There’s a fake seal and fake letterhead with a fictitious police station. It asks the addressed journalist to come for a discussion at Mehboob Studios with the crew of the movie. It is signed by Parull Gossain, a PR consultant known to every film journalist.
It’s a creative way to get the attention of a journalist. To the Mumbai Police it was forgery, which is a slightly idiotic interpretation. Which forger is stupid enough to send a forgery to newspapers in her own name? Motive and intent are, however, irrelevant when a police commissioner doesn’t find a joke funny. A rap on the knuckles should’ve been enough. Instead, the police clamped six sections of the IPC on Gupta. His anticipatory bail plea has also been rejected. Surely, no one deserves to go to jail for a gimmick.
More Columns
Rohit Bal(1961-2024): Threading Beauty Kaveree Bamzai
Bibek Debroy (I955-2024): The Polymath Open
Kamala Harris’ Travails: A Two Act Play Dipankar Gupta