Interview with Gotham Chopra about the Film, “Decoding Chopra”

Deepak Chopra, the world famous author, spiritual leader and founder of the Chopra Center, has pointed out that Indian films explore reality themes with depth such as poverty, aging and oppression, but rarely do they take on spirituality as a topic. Deepak Chopra is planning to change that, one film at a time. This article is an interview of his son, Gotham by Harish Rao in Buzzline Bollywood.

Interview with Gotham Chopra about the Film, “Decoding Chopra”

Sure, the film’s central character is probably one of the most prolific and recognizable spiritual cultural icons, but the motivation by filmmaker and son Gotham Chopra refreshingly comes from the perspective of exploring what his father represents and, beyond that, an honest look into all aspects and facets of Deepak Chopra the spiritual guru, the father, grandfather and human being.
I sat down with Gotham Chopra to explore more about the motivations, experiences, and a frank discussion about all of the curious questions you may have wanted to ask. I hope you enjoy the article, which I found to be as refreshing as the subject matter itself.

Harish Rao: Why did you decide now to follow your father and do this documentary?
Gautam Chopra: For me I never set out to make a spiritual film and the film attempts to answer (what is spirituality) and my father has become this spiritual icon and for me it was about pulling that apart and trying to reconcile this strange spiritual cultural icon he has become to the world and to the Lady Gagas of the world versus who he is really and what he is interested in and where he is going and who he is a person I grew up around and my sister grew up around. So I think spirituality is the state of awareness and for me this film is an exploration of that. And, in general, Indian cinema is undergoing an amazing transformation right now, as all the different genre space opens up and so we are seeing gangster, thriller, romantic comedies which is really moving away from the traditional song and dance Bollywood scene. So, it’s a really exciting time to be part of the Indian cinema movement whatever that is.
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For those of you not as familiar with India and Indian culture, Bollywood is (just as it seems) the Indian equivalent to Hollywood. Bollywood films, however, would not be produced in Hollywood as they are often mostly musicals with large, complicated dance numbers - more like Broadway plays than Hollywood movies. In India they are very cheap to attend and so they become the entertainment for the common people. Everyone lives happily ever after. “Decoding Chopra”, however is not of this genre. I’ll let you judge for yourself what Gotham has captured after a year of traveling around with his father. Here is the trailer to the film.