Golden Moments with Film Director Shekhar Kapur

Indian director Shekhar Kapur was on campus for two weeks to conduct master workshops with the students from the Graduate Film Department. He conducted a total of four master workshops and screened his movies Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Bandit Queen. Both screenings were followed by Q&A sessions with our students.

“Mr. Kapur was exceptionally generous with his time and knowledge on the directing process.  He has a very gentle and insightful style,” said David K. Irving, chair of the Graduate Film Department.  Students from the first and second year of the Graduate Film Department also got to spend one-on-one time with the prominent film director in his office and in the editing lab.

 After screening his ground-breaking and heart-wrenching film Bandit Queen, Kapur said he believes to direct actors, the director must find some part of him or herself that empathizes with the character. 

“I've never looked at filmmaking as a career. I've looked at filmmaking as an adventure. When you come down the mountain, you get ready to climb again,” said Kapur.

The prominent film director feels very strongly about the future of the media and film industry in Asia. He said, “There's a lot of imagination in Asia, and I believe that the next Google will come from there, and the next Pixar. I believe that the great new media companies will come out of Asia and surpass the big media conglomerates that exist right now in the West.”