In terms of India today, Jaideep is quick to make demarcations. "The way I see it there's an India A, India B and India C. India A is us, sitting here right now. We've come from pretty privileged backgrounds, as normal Indians go. We are the top 1% in terms of resources. We call ourselves upper middle-class, but are actually extremely high class as far as percentages go in India.
"India B is the India of Bunty Aur Babli, who sees us on cable and wants to be like that. Then there's India C, the tribals we used to watch dancing with Indira Gandhi when we were kids. You ask them who the prime minister is, they'll say Mahatma Gandhi. They are completely untouched by all this. So the market economy has touched India A, has touched India B, is on the rise in towns like Kanpur, etc. And India C is not invited to the party.
"They're the ones who are committing suicide," sighs the writer. "So this trickle-down, as they say, is happening. I'm aware it's happening. Whether it's happening fast enough, or in an equitable enough way, I don't think so. We don't make movies for them, we don't make any product for them. We don't even do government for them, some Naxalites are their government. There's a vacuum there, no?
"So they make their own movies. Bhojpuri movies are doing well, na? They have their own system of judiciary. The trickle-down is happening, opening up to the world is helping us and I'm all for it but there's an India which is shining, there's an India which is waiting to shine, and hungry for opportunities, which is Bunty Aur Babli, and there's an India which has no hopes in hell of ever shining, and we aren't even looking at them. That's not fair."
Photograph: Then prime minister Indira Gandhi, a master of the grand public gesture.
Also read: Five decisions that changed India
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