The Printing Machine was not an angry outburst: Kalki Koechlin

Kalki Koechlin’s latest video The Printing Machine features the feisty actress in an aggressive avatar, deriding the role of the media in sensationalising news about women. Over the years, Kalki has been identified with issues related to women’s empowerment that she raises in her movies, in videos and on public platforms. We caught up with the actress for a quick chat.

What brought on The Printing Machine. Please talk about its genesis?

I was disturbed by certain headlines and wanted to write about how we become desensitised to shocking news. It was written in January 2015.

The excesses of the media have been excessively covered. Then why your angry outburst?

It’s not an angry outburst. It’s an observation on the state of affairs.

Admittedly, there is a mix of truth and anger in your diatribe. Is that what you aimed to project?

I aim to make us aware of our habits and trappings as a society to be apathetic.

How did the rapid flow of words happen?

I kept reading headlines and put thoughts down for a couple of months and then when I got the sound of the printing machine (taka taka), that’s when I turned it into a poem.

How tough was it for you to put the words across in a coherent flow of furious irony?

I think I enjoy the process of putting words to rhyme and rhythm, it’s the performer in me.

Does the mediatisation of human lives have any redeeming quality for you? If the December 16 rape case was not highlighted to a hammering high, we would have never made rape an issue for discussion? Do you agree?

Oh absolutely. The idea is not that journalism should be censored but that it should be followed through and not given in snippets without context and that our recent past should not be forgotten quickly.