‘Holy Cowboys’ Doc Focuses On Hindu Nationalism In India & Sacred Cow – Deadline read full article at worldnews365.me

In Varun Chopra’s Oscar-contending documentary short Holy Cowboys, the director offers a peek into a side of India’s societal structure on how the cow, a sacred and holy animal to the majority Hindu population, is being protected from slaughter by a growing group of Hindu nationalists. Winner of the Grand Jury prize at the 2022 DOC NYC, Holy Cowboys introduces viewers to the world of cow vigilantism through the eyes of a Hindu teen and his friends from a small town, Vapi, in the state of Gujarat. 

Chopra, a Sundance Ignite Fellow who is based in the U.S. and India, takes a hybrid approach to shed light on the growing Hindu nationalist influence on youth, and their justification to resort to violence on Muslims and other minorities to end the consumption of beef, all in the name of the cow. He also presents other prevalent issues, such as plastic pollution, politics of beef trade, and the pathetic conditions of stray cattle that exposes the hypocrisy of the cow’s reverence in India.

Speaking to Deadline, Chopra sheds light on his filmmaking style of creating character arcs for his documentary and how Holy Cowboys, Oscar-qualified in the shorts category, adds to films by Indian talent in recent years that examine social, economic, and environmental conditions in India. 

DEADLINE: What drew you initially to the subject matter of Holy Cowboys and what were the deciding factors for you to ultimately make the documentary?

Varun Chopra: I grew up in India, so the story is personal to me. I wanted to understand where the personal intersects the political in this debate. Cows have been a stand-in for something way larger in Indian society for a very long time. And in many parts of India, [the cow] is considered sacred. So historically too, cows have been the divide between meat eaters and non-meat eaters. But for the most part, back in the day, it also used to be a symbol against the British Raj. The cow is likened to be this nourishing mother for a lot of people in India but the fervor to protect these cows is a very, very new occurrence. And I wanted to probe what the reality was. I wanted to take a lens on how can I understand this without my own certain bias and create a primer with my own film without having it being like a reportage. 

There are amazing filmmakers such as Amit Madheshiya and Shirley Abraham – they made a film for The Guardian called The Hour of Lynching [about a Muslim dairy farmer who was killed by a Hindu mob]. So there have been lynching films but I wanted to present something that I knew about from my own lens – kind of like a hybrid film, because that’s what I’m interested in in my practice. And then that’s how this idea came about of a film that charts the journey of young kids who are slowly and gradually losing their innocence to radicalization. 

DEADLINE: You adopted a non-intrusive approach to the film and at the same time dramatized portions of it. What was the thought behind incorporating these elements in the film?

VC: I wanted to figure out how I could tell a story and what really a documentary could be. Because most of the times my work borrows heavily from the likes of Asghar Farhadi, Abbas Kiarostami, Anurag Kashyap – all these filmmakers have a very good grasp of mixing fiction and nonfiction in some ways, or actors and non-actors. But this is a pure documentary and I wanted to see how is it that I can craft a story and take the audience on a journey using this very cinematic formalism language where there’s a character on a journey, he’s a man on a mission and then he has trouble getting there. Me and my editor built this journey together where we wanted to make sure that there was rhythm to the story. Oftentimes, I find in short documentaries, because of time [constraints], there isn’t necessarily a character arc. So you either see a profile of somebody or the theme of something that’s happening, but we never really see a man-on-a-mission journey, unless it’s a process film. And I think for this film, I wanted that to be the case. And for my next films I constantly want to do that because that’s what interests me.

DEADLINE: What challenges did you face while making the film?

VC: I think the biggest challenge was to understand how do we get the access to this [cow vigilante] group? The state of the media in [India] is terrible. So the very first questions that people ask is based completely out of suspicion, like okay, you want to be connected with this person, or that person – who are you, what are your political allegiances? It was a very tricky territory to understand. But I give props to my line producer, who had done journalistic documentaries before. And, of course, after we were there [at the location in Vapi, Gujarat], obviously just making sure that the trust was established. This is the part where the unobtrusive lens comes in because I wanted to hear what they had to say. But again, the balance was to make sure not to give a platform to hatred. I had to insert my own commentary – what do I feel as a filmmaker here? And I think some of the surrealist scenes, the things with the text [on screen], bunch of edits and some directorial elements – this is how it comes through…not just putting a mic into their faces and letting them speak whatever they wanted to. But there were instances where we were definitely potentially in danger. They wanted to see what we were filming…you go in and you make sure that your memory card is always backed up, because you never know. 

DEADLINE: On one of the posters of the film you’ve stated how the docile cow has become “the most polarizing animal” in India. Can you elaborate on this?

VC: The polarization is that the cow is bang in the center of the fault lines between meat eaters and non-meat eaters, or generally who could harm the cows or who protects the cows. And it’s always the symbolic nature of things where you’re not outright saying we’re anti-Muslim or anti minority group. The cows become this fulcrum point – in my opinion – of how it all began. And this is not in the film – but one of the things that they are saying is, because the danger is so much, people are not transporting cows anymore. They [Hindu nationalists] would go and raid goats. A goat is not an animal that is considered sacred necessarily by anybody, but it is known that many slaughter houses and butcheries are owned by Muslims. So they just want to hurt them. There’s a heavy loss to their business, and that’s what they consider success. I quote the lines from the film where one of the vigilante group members says, “Instill fear. Fear is how you win.” And that’s the fear – you’re living in our country. This is a Hindu nation, and you are second class. So there are real reckonings to be had. Who do we want to become as a country? We occupy this very interesting position in the world where we’re the biggest democracy in the world, so to speak. That’s what we are losing actively right now, in my opinion. And the cow just seems to be in the fulcrum of that democratic slipping. 

DEADLINE: What reaction have you had to the film in India given the sensitivity of the subject matter?

VC: It’s been hard to screen the film in India. There’s no way around that. Hard to distribute it. People have seen it, the streamers have seen it but it’s not a commercially viable situation to begin with. So there were times I was very demotivated, but not to an extent that I’m going to stop doing it. Though, at the same time, I thought, wow there’s definitely a voice in the country that does agree that whatever is happening, it’s not right. I’ve had people saying that this is an important film, and this has reinforced my idea that there’s a voice of reason that still exists in the country. Especially people my age who understand that there’s change happening in not in necessarily a correct direction, and we’re not operating with empathy. And then there’s also been reactions like, this is brave filmmaking. But the fear around that is also hard. 

People around me, even some filmmakers, they’re all like, be careful. Things are heated up here. But mostly it’s been a very positive reaction. What I wanted to do with the project in the beginning was create a primer for a foreign eye. Many people have come up to me and they’re like, my God, I had no idea this was happening [in India]. And I’m like, yes, this is the reality.

DEADLINE: There are some graphic scenes peppered throughout the film. Was there any particular incident or moment that affected you during the making of Holy Cowboys?

VC: Absolutely. There is no way, you couldn’t be [affected]. Cows are not restricted to the rural area or semi-urban towns. They’re everywhere. I remember when I was young, my mom would give me rotis [round flatbread] and she would say, go give it to the cow. And I’d just go to a park and find a cow and feed it rotis. When we were there [on location], there were some cows…there were like 60-65 kilos of plastic coming out of a cow. That’s how much they’re consuming, and they inevitably die. And I think it speaks to our consumption patterns. Plastics were everywhere…the first step in the process should be, let’s clean this up. They’re bringing out 60 kilos on an average out of a single cow. So it is hard not to get affected by that.

DEADLINE: What does it mean to you to be considered for the Oscars?

VC: I think the presence of our films on this world platform – we’re present every year, and we’re trying to be consistent with it because we’re all trying to pursue truth. Between Vinay’s [Shukla] While We Watched and Sarvnik’s [Kaur] Against The Tide, or To Kill a Tiger, so many films are coming through. And they’re not just coming through because they’re from a big-name producer – they’re all different kinds of films coming from different parts of the country. That’s the kind of variety we’re bringing to the table. And I think that speaks to the bigger thing – that there’s hunger to create and there are stories available. And I feel we all want to have our voices be heard. Let’s talk about colonialism and things about animal welfare in Shaunak’s [Sen] film All That Breathes, and things about biodiversity. Or Kartiki’s [Gonsalves] film The Elephant Whisperers, about indigenous rights, and Vinay’s film about media declination. This never used to happen. 

If I could carve out a tiny space for myself in some way or form, that also speaks to universal experiences, I want to be a part of that. I want to contribute to that discourse, and I want to be a part of the pool that is aspirational to me.