Making of Zubaan: The director's perspective

I have an incredible amount of faith. It is my faith that has propelled me forward in dark and trying times. It is my faith that has healed me with its tight grip of reassurance. My idea of faith is not just limited to God, but it extends itself more to a source of energy and power that I believe inhabits and infuses all our lives. And it is the people who try to deny and shun it, that I am fascinated with. What then, do they believe in?

Sometimes they believe in themselves, and this gives rise to monumental egos. And often times, they just lose their way. And this makes things fall apart. For a director, both situations are intriguing and offer fodder for stimulating and soulful cinema.

Zubaan was borne out of this sense of fascination. It is not a cliché that most debut features are tinged with, or often plunged into the veneer of self-reflection. Zubaan is too. But rather than telling the story about belief, I was much more attracted to the idea of telling a story about a non-believer, about someone who loses his faith, and therefore loses his way, until he gets a chance to find himself again, but in doing so, he will have to strip himself down to his core, reinvent his own wheel and unlearn all that he thought was right.

Zubaan is set against the backdrop of music. In the lead character, Dilsher's journey, music is a metaphor for faith. When he loses his faith, the music dies. And he embarks on a different journey from the one that destiny had originally planned for him. Until the music comes gushing back into his life, this time not just as a metaphor for faith, but also for love, and so begins Dilsher's unraveling and eventually, his catharsis. Music saves his soul; the soul of Zubaan is music. Music is the language of the universe;it is its Zubaan.

I didn't make Zubaan. Zubaan made me. The often frustrating seven year odyssey of trying to make this film and then finally getting the brilliant opportunity to not just make the film, but to be so devotedly involved in every aspect of its making- the casting, the workshops, the music, the choreography, the locations, the costumes, the sets - all of it, made me feel whole again. Just like Dilsher, Zubaan has been my purging too.

Today I'm left with a deep sense of gratitude for my cast, my crew, for the amazing, clutter breaking music that we've created, for the relationships that have come to be because of this film. All of them are a validation of my faith.

Faithlessness may be fascinating, but faith wins.

Here's the teaser: