24.11.2025
A: What was the last Bollywood film that you watched?
S: Don’t call it Bollywood. I hate that word. We are Indian, we don’t need to copy anyone. Call it the Hindi film. It was War 2 with Hrithik Roshan. The actor is Punjabi. He plays a warrior. That is what we are.
A: And what is it like to be a Hindi film viewer?
S: When you are a stranger in a strange land, the Hindi film is everything. It is the culture and the teaching. A space where Indian men like me aren’t stereotypes, sidelined, villains. Instead, we are heroes.
A: Is that what you love about the Hindi film?
S: I told you. The classic Hindi film is everything. Story. Music. Dancing women dancing the dance of seduction. Love. Comedy. War.
A: If you love them so much, why do you watch so seldom?
S: I watch my dancing women on my phone. I replay the scenes I have seen in my head, reflecting on them all the time. Everywhere I go, I listen to the songs and the lyrics on the move.
A: A real fan. I guess a fan with no time.
S: When you have been named after a film, Sunil Dutt in Mother India, when your destiny comes from that film, to protect Mother India, then it is only fitting that you are the ultimate fan. I might hold a PhD in English literature and First Class Honours in the subject. But all my knowledge of the stories comes from the Hindi film.
diary of a lone man 