No religion supports violence: Goutam Ghose

"This is a universal trend happening all over the world. But in our land this battle has assumed an ugly proportion. People are losing their rational way of debating (juktitarko hariye phelchhe)," the thinking director whose national award winner 'Sankhachil' is awaiting release in April, tells IBNS here.

Goutam, whose films had always talked about liberal values and the story of the downtrodden, says "It is not advisable to do politics with religion.'

"If we quarrel among ourselves how can we progress?," he asks to a question on whether he is intrigued by the tolerance/intolerance debate in the country.

Goutam also sounds prophetic by saying, "No religion ever supports any act of violence." 

Goutam refers to a 1930 story by Munshi Premchand on mandir-masjid co-existence and says his views are more imperative in present day situation.

"There are so many issues and subjects to deal with as a film maker., So many developments taking place in the country. Yes I am stricken by the happenings as a film maker," he says.

To another question he says democracy safeguards the right to debate and dissent.

"India has a beautiful mosaic. And this was best manifested during my interaction with Ustad Bismillah Khan for a documentary on his life. One who takes bath in the morning, offers namaz and then go to nearby temple to play shenai. This is my India, my world for me. And this was Lalon Fakir's world," he says.

About his long pending wish for a joint distribution mechanism for Indian-Bangladeshi films, Goutam moots a corpus created by the two nations, on the lines of EU,