Nilosree Biswas is an author and filmmaker. Her works, both film, and writing have appeared in various print media and screened worldwide including at Cannes Film Festival. Broken Memory, Shining Dust, her prominent documentary, has been archived by Oscar Library. Her earlier book, also co-authored with Irfan Nabi—Alluring Kashmir: The Inner Spirit—has found a home in the Library of Congress.

Irfan Nabi photographs often and writes intermittently. His photographs have been part of major exhibitions in Amsterdam, Washington, Kolkata, and New Delhi among many other cities around the globe.

Nilosree Biswas and Irfan Nabi have collaborated again in this book Banaras: Of Gods, Humans and Stories. The Kolkata Mail correspondent Priyanka Dutta caught up with Nilosree Biswas in an exclusive conversation about the new book. Excerpts..

You have co-authored a book before with Irfan Nabi. How is it working with Irfan Nabi again?

Nilosree Biswas- I believe in long-term collaboration and that has been my practice as a filmmaker for the last twenty-seven years. So collaborating once again with Irfan Nabi is continuity to that practice. Also, it is always a good idea to work with co-workers whose working methods one is aware of. Our functioning is a mix of working independently and jointly. Till a certain stage, we are totally independent and do not interfere in each other`s approaches and then there is a stage with a lot of back and forth which builds the finality of the manuscript.

Banaras Of Gods, Humans And Stories is a photo-heavy book, shot over seasons. And the images are not only gorgeous but sublime storytelling frames that are single-frame stories often independent of their text.

Tell us something about the book.

Nilosree Biswas- Well I think reading the book is a better idea than saying anything. And yet if I were to put it down here, the book is a deconstruction of one of the most antiquarian cities in the world and in India. It’s an exploration tracing the unique chromosome of a lived-in space that makes Banaras one of its kind.

Banaras is a city with many shades. What aspects of the city have you tried to show in this book?

Nilosree Biswas- Banaras for me is a real space, a city with a huge history, distinct mythology but it is also a notion, somewhat a state of mind.

The book stands on the essential tenets of its sacred geography, architecture, and people-based handcrafted traditions, and the idea of ‘Banarasipaan’.

What made you interested to write about Banaras?

Nilosree Biswas- It is a long story and I have written about it in the “Introductory” section of the book. The very first connection stemmed as a 70`s kid of Kolkata from ‘Joy Baba Felunath’. As an adult, it got nurtured while working as an assistant director in the mid-’90s and that`s the beginning. It’s a storyteller city, you are drawn to it. And it’s always important to reinterpret an ancient location that`s how one contextualizes it is present.

How much time did it take to write this book?

Nilosree Biswas- Three years thereabouts.

As an author, will you be also writing books on some other cities of India that have an equally riveting story like Banaras?

Nilosree Biswas- I am not sure about that as of now but yes I engage a lot with city history, so you never know. To write a riveting story, I would need riveting cities rather than find the riveting elements of a place. I am on the lookout for those elements always.

You are a filmmaker too. Will you be making a film on the city of light too?

Nilosree Biswas- Yes, I would love to.

What is next in line for you as an author?

Nilosree Biswas- A book on Colonial influences on Bengal`s- Kolkata`s gastronomy is my next work.

A great book that will help you discover Banaras in a new light.