Indian filmmaker Krishnendu Bose arrived in Dhaka on Friday with his documentary 'Bay of Blood'. The topic of the film is the genocide by the Pakistani army in Bangladesh during the 1971 war of liberation. The Liberation War Museum has arranged a screening of the documentary on the occasion of the 48th death anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Krishnendu Bose's documentary films have won awards in the US, Romania and Italy. He is presently the Indian goodwill ambassador for the Asian Academy Creative Awards, Singapore. In an interview with Prothom Alo's senior correspondent Naznin Akhter, he talks in detail about his film 'Bay of Blood'.
Q :
What inspired you to make a film on Bangladesh's genocide?
This is not a tale of Bangladesh alone. This rises above religion, colour, caste, nationality and state, and is a story of humanity. I visited many countries in 2019 to talk about this documentary and to collect funds. I was horrified that they knew about the Nazi annihilation of Jews in the Second World War, the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia, but no one knew about the 1971 horrific genocide in Bangladesh. That made me more determined to make this film. Being a Bengali, I could understand how it felt for this language and culture to be attacked. Whenever I have talked to the victims in of this genocide, in Bangladesh or elsewhere, I could feel their pain.
Q :
How did you realise that no one was aware of the genocide in Bangladesh?
I took up making this documentary film in 2019 with my production platform Earthcare Productions. In October that year I tool a trailer of the film to a broadcast conference in France. There were people of television, OTT and production houses from Europe, America, Asia and all over the world at that event. After I screened the trailer, everyone was astonished. They said that they had never heard about the genocide in Bangladesh before. I had the same experience when I screened the trailer the same year at the Asian festival in Singapore too. Only those from South Asia were aware of the genocide. I felt bad that no one knew about such a massive incident in Bangladesh.
Q :
Does you documentary have any rare footage?
We managed to unearth certain footage that very few people have seen. For example, very few people have heard the conversation in the Oval Office back them between the president of the United State Richard Nixon and his security advisor Henry Kissinger. The documentary includes the tale of world politics too, for which the US committed crimes against this country. The world has been told very little about all this.
Q :
There are some Indian films that portray the liberation war as a war between India and Pakistan. What is the narrative of your documentary?
When you see the movie you will see that I have no bias. I have remained within documented evidence and incidents. The documentary portrays the accounts of direct witnesses. India fought for 13 days and then victory came. But the fight was not for 13 days. Bangladesh became independent after a nine month war of liberation. The events were over a period of 25 years, from 1947 to 10 January 1972, the day when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur returned to independent Bangladesh. Towards the end of the documentary, the killing of Bangabandhu has also been included. This conveys a message about the impact of the genocide.
Q :
What is that message?
The words of Daniel Feierstein, the academic who specialises on genocide issues of Argentina, are echoed in this documentary. From his experience he says that Pakistan didn't just suddenly take the decision to commit genocide on 25 March. The process of genocide was gradual. He has described that. He said in the end that when a country becomes independent, that genocide is called a failure. But it was seen that even in independent Bangladesh that genocide could be successful, that the national identity could be changed. The seeds of genocide that had been planted, grew in Bangladesh. Bangabandhu was killed and history was distorted. The country had no democracy for many years.
Q :
How was the reaction of the Indians to the influx of nearly 10 million refugees during the liberation war?
I was just 10 years old during the liberation war of Bangladesh. I cannot remember on a personal level what the reaction of the people was, but in making this documentary, I have received positive responses in this regard from people both in Bangladesh and India. That has appeared in the film. Many Bangladeshis said that there were Indian families in Tripura who even vacated their own homes to offer them shelter.
Q :
Did you face any challenges in making the movie?
I had to collect a huge amount of information to present 25 years in a 90 minute documentary film. I had to film 40 hours of footage. Around 30 minutes of information was collected from various archives. I had to rush all over the place, to Bangladesh, India, the US, UK and Argentina to do the filming. I started the work in 2019, but things were held up due to the Covid outbreak. But I used that time to talks over Zoom to various researchers all over the world. That has enriched the documentary.
Q :
How was the cooperation from Bangladesh?
The filming took place in many place where there was public movement. We only had to take permission from the government for that, otherwise no assistance was taken from the government. But the cooperation we received from the general people of Bangladesh was extraordinary. They rushed forward to talk about the genocide and the liberation struggle. They came to Bhola, Chuknagar and Sherpur. Even the busy people of Dhaka gave time for this documentary. Not only did they give their interviews, but they extended all sorts of assistance and advice regarding various aspects of the 25 years of history and that had a great contribution to the film. Other than that, academics of the US, UK and Argentina, social workers, journalists and even officials of the Nixon administration gave time for this documentary.
Q :
Thank you very much for the interview.
Thank you too.