Former print and TV journalist Janaki Vishwanathan, whose first Hindi film Bakrapur has a goat named Shah Rukh, in an interview to Tehelka magazine:
What draws you to your topics — child labour and devdasis?
My training as a journalist made me pick on something that has a basis in reality. Also, I ceased to see cinema as just entertainment. It’s more than that. It can entertain but also inform. Even in mainstream cinema, the issues that these films talk about come from society. It’s the treatment that dilutes the issues for entertainment.
Photograph: via Twitter
Read the full interview: Janaki Vishwanathan
Also read: How a BVB course shaped writr Shashi Deshpande
How journalism helped cartoonist Manjula Padmanabhan
Prakash Belawadi: Bangalore reporter who became ‘RAW agent’
IJR 