'Corruption Is No Longer A Bad WORD'

'When India opened its doors to the world, moving away from an agrarian to a market economy, everything, whether life or love, was commodified.'

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In the first part of a fascinating interview, film-maker Goutam Ghose was worried about 'cinema's greatest challenge'.

"Capitalism has been there since the late 19th century, but now there's the need to grab everything, to destroy and construct. Corporates are only interested in profits and the 'work 24x7' mantra is leading to early burnout. Controlling this speculative economy is essential to our survival," Ghose tells Rediff Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya in the concluding segment of the interview.

What is the greatest challenge human beings are facing today?

I should think it is greed. Corruption is no longer a bad word; it is a part of our lives today.

In 1991, when India opened its doors to the world, moving away from an agrarian to a market economy, everything, whether life or love, was commodified. Since I travel with my films around the world, I could understand what was happening and tried to sound a warning through Gudiya and Yatra.

But not many understood what I was saying then. Our greatest gift as human beings is the power to think. Once we stop doing that, we become robots and that's scary.

Talking about Yatra, how did you elicit such a wonderful performance from Rekha who has always been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema?

Rekha, Nana Patekar, Deepti (Naval), they were all superb.

As a director, it is your responsibility to point out to your cast that while you admire their stardom, it is imperative that they become your character.

I have had friendly relations with all my actors and if there are any arguments or conflicts, even that's desirable as it can only help the film. I have fond memories of Rekha. She needs to do more serious films.

Would you want to go on another yatra with her?