On the final session of ‘The Conclave 2023’, renowned Bollywood filmmaker Imtiaz Ali spoke about his root from Jamshedpur and diversification of the place which has helped him from the core to meet people from all corners of the country while making films.
During an interview session with Smitakshi B Goswami, Managing Director, Pratidin Time, Imtiaz Ali said, “A person who is in the field of arts cannot be physically rooted, he or she have to be anywhere. While, you belong to everywhere, somehow I enjoy the fact that I belong to one place and that is Jamshedpur. I feel Jamshedpur might be the best place in the country or even in the world to be raised because it is a small place which has Indian value system of a small place and where everybody knows each other. There are a lot of exposures there, there are two golf courses in the town, there are multitudes of swimming pools, horse riding ranges. People from Jamshedpur are very well-developed in everything and also it is a very cosmopolitan town because it was built by the Tatas. Because of the factories, people from all corners came there for work. There are a lot people from Northeast India, East India, South India, so many categories of people were there. It was very diverse.”
Ali claimed that due to this diversification, it has helped him a lot in making films.
“The street I used to live had Bihari family, Bengali family or people from Northeast India or Gujarat. When I was growing, I used to go their homes, thus, I know the food culture of these communities as well. It did help me in making film as it is a people’s job. When you are surrounded by 200 people and you visit new places and there you meet some more people, it helps you in knowing their cultural differences,” added Ali.
Speaking about his college days in Delhi, Ali said that he didn’t have the luck to travel in Metro while he was in college. He uses to travel in bus from Central Secretariat from North Campus.
Imtiaz did his graduation from the Hindu College in Delhi in English honors.
Ali was engaged in theatres since his college days. He said that he had theatre group namely Ibtida which is still active. The theatre group was started by Imtiaz and his friends.
“Ibtida is a dramatic society. Now it does more street theatre, during my college days, this theatre group did lot of street and proscenium theatres. Here, I was also part of the group in Mandi house called Act one, there I was the junior most and in my college, I used to be the president of the society and mostly the director of the plays,” added Imtiaz.
