Sudeep Ranjan Sarkar popularly known as SRS is an auteur in the world of movies,a style icon, a poet, painter,writer,actor and founder of a decade old boutique film festival known as NEZ International Film Festival and Founder of NEZ Moving Pixels. Sudeep Ranjan Sarkar has crafted his own genre internationally and has made movies that are radically different in body and spirit from what Indian Filmmakers have made till date.
How has your philosophy, poetry, and prose shaped the unique cinematic language that defines your films, and how conscious are you of blending these art forms while storytelling?
1)Philosophy, poetry,prose are mere tools in my storytelling.I am morbidly afraid of death and time and these are the real drivers for my cinema.I think I have a visceral hate and unhealthy love for time.I am obsessed with it.My art,in all forms including cinema is conditioned by time.I don’t see any art forms as separate.I look at them as blending into each other seamlessly.
Your work is often compared to European masters like Luis Buñuel, Aki Kaurismäki, and Béla Tarr—how do you interpret these comparisons, and in what ways do you believe your cinema diverges from theirs?
2) While it is certainly flattering to be compared with the Masters such as Luis Buñuel, Aki Kaurismaki and Béla Tarr, I think I have a distinct form and rhythm in my cinema.Moral turpitude, and redemption for even the most depraved character in my cinema is I think my most distinctive signature.I like the layered story telling of the above mentioned Masters and my cinema is in no hurry.
Creating five full-length feature films using smartphones is a record-breaking achievement—what motivated this approach, and how did it redefine your understanding of filmmaking aesthetics and freedom?
3)Using smartphones to film 5 feature length movies was more of an economic decision for me and yet strangely liberating.The ability to tell stories with just a smartphone and not being tethered to a bulky camera is what drove me to shoot that way.Record was not a conscious decision,it just happened in the way.
As someone who directs, writes, edits, and even acts in his films, how do you balance being a ‘one-man industry’ while preserving objectivity and creative discipline in your work?
4)I wish to control every aspect of filmmaking because I am aware of the complete picture in my mind.But I guess with larger canvas I have give up some of the those jobs to able team member.My passion is acting and direction and heck I would love to act under directors who think they can use me for their project.
Your films resist genre classification and often explore philosophical, spiritual, and sensual themes—what draws you repeatedly to these questions, and how do you decide the form each story should take?
5)I hate classification and hated being typecast.I think I am an eternal rebel with a chip on my shoulder.My stories decide the themes and I have no qualms about serving spirituality and sensuality from the same plate.
With your upcoming fashion label ‘SRS’ reflecting your bold personal style, how do you see fashion, cinema, and identity intersecting in your larger vision as a global artist?
6)With my upcoming label SRS I see myself as more of a disruptor.I love breaking stereotypes and patterns.My label is an extension of my soul.Forever restless,for seeking, incorrigible and untameable.
