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.
‘Holy Cowboys’Courtesy of Martin Taube
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.
And I wanted to probe what the reality was.
Courtesy of The Corner Shop
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?
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 thats what interests me.
DEADLINE:What challenges did you face while making the film?
The state of the media in [India] is terrible.
It was a very tricky territory to understand.
But I give props to my line producer, who had done journalistic documentaries before.
But again, the balance was to verify not to give a platform to hatred.
I had to insert my own commentary what do I feel as a filmmaker here?
But there were instances where we were definitely potentially in danger.
Can you elaborate on this?
And its always the symbolic nature of things where youre not outright saying were anti-Muslim or anti minority group.
The cows become this fulcrum point in my opinion of how it all began.
They [Hindu nationalists] would go and raid goats.
So they just want to hurt them.
Theres a heavy loss to their business, and thats 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 thats the fear youre 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?
Thats 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: Its been hard to screen the film in India.
Theres no way around that.
Hard to distribute it.
And then theres also been reactions like, this is brave filmmaking.
But the fear around that is also hard.
People around me, even some filmmakers, theyre all like, be careful.
Things are heated up here.
But mostly its been a very positive reaction.
What I wanted to do with the project in the beginning was create a primer for a foreign eye.
And Im 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 ofHoly Cowboys?
There is no way, you couldnt be [affected].
Cows are not restricted to the rural area or semi-urban towns.
And Id just go to a park and find a cow and feed itrotis.
Thats how much theyre 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, lets clean this up.
Theyre 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?
Thats the kind of variety were bringing to the table.
And I think that speaks to the bigger thing that theres hunger to create and there are stories available.
And I feel we all want to have our voices be heard.
Or Kartikis [Gonsalves] filmThe Elephant Whisperers, about indigenous rights, and Vinays film about media declination.
This never used to happen.
