Actor-director Konkona Sensharma has collaborated with MUBI for their second edition of ‘Handpicked By‘. As part of this collaboration, Sharma will handpick seven diverse films for the platform, providing film enthusiasts with an opportunity to indulge in distinct cinematic content. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, she opened up about it and also the future of OTT.
On the idea behind the collaboration
I’m a big fan of MUBI. They are one of the only platforms that give opportunities to what is not necessarily mainstream content, we get to watch it from all over the world. I’m a big fan of world cinema and this platform has films from the great masters from the 70s and 80s till now. In case of the latest web series and shows, sometimes I’m very bored oinema and this platform has films from the great masters from the 70s and 80s till now. In case of the latest web series and shows, sometimes I’m very bored of the hype, like everyone wants to see Succession. There are always hidden gems and I love their curation. Like Vikramaditya Motwane did something on the director he likes, so you get to watch the content they’ve made, and feel closer to the director and get into their minds. I could find a wide variety of films and now I’ve chosen five films that are very close to me and connected to.
On choosing the films
The only criteria I had was choosing films that spoke to me and had an impact on me personally. They made me feel things I didn’t feel otherwise. My son only watches superhero films so that’s also very boring after a point. My mother was very particular about the fact that we watched world cinema; her father was one of the founders of the Satyajit Ray Film Society in Calcutta, so there was always world cinema happening. The films I’ve chosen are very unusual films, one is about a 13-14 year old boy who’s a very troubled teenager. There’s another film about threesome but not in terms of sex but in terms of connect between three individuals. It has a very dark kind of an ending. Even the other films, they all had a kind of deep impact on me.
On movies had had an impact on her as a director
There’s this film called We Need To Talk About Kevin. It’s an adaptation of a book of the same name by Lionel Shriver, which is a very unusual portrayal of motherhood and what happens when you have a child you’re not able to connect to and a child who’s disturbed, it’s a very dark coming-of-age film.
On OTT and content evolution
You know it depends, there’s so much content everywhere that one gets tired after a point. In that sense, a movie really connect to me beyond the hype. Like everyone is making shows about crime; once in a while is fun but I don’t know how this shall be in the next five years. Tomorrow there might be something else.