Marathi Film Breaks Language Barriers

Decades ago in India a man named Dadasaheb Phalke mortgaged his home to make India's first feature film, Raja Harishchandra in 1913. Cut to 2005. Paresh Mokashi reads a biography of Phalke by Bapu Watve. Sans any experience in filmmaking, yet immensely inspired by the father of Indian cinema's life, Mokashi decides to follow in Phalke's footsteps by mortgaging his home to make his first film, Harishchandrachi Factory (Harishchandra's Factory), the most expensive Marathi film. Not only that, but his debut film actually ends up breaking language barriers and becomes India's official entry for the 2009 Oscars' best foreign film category.

Asha ParekhAsha Parekh, who heads the committee which selects films to represent India in the Oscars, pointed out that out of the 12 entries competing for nomination, Harishchandrachi Factory really stood out. "It's a very nice film," said Parekh. "Even though it's biographical, it's very interesting and has humor. More importantly it tells the story of a great pioneer, Dadasaheb Phalke. I really hope it gets nominated for the best foreign film category at the Oscars."

Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, concurred with Parekh. "Harishchandrachi Factory is one of the most disarmingly charming and uplifting movies to come out of the Indian film industry in many years," Kapur said. "It is apt that this film about the birth of Indian cinema, made by a supremely talented first time director Paresh Mokashi, should be India's official entry to the Academy Awards."

Film director Shivajee Chandrabhushan, whose film Frozen won two National Awards this year, said that he and well-respected offbeat film director Anurag Kashyap were so inspired by Mokashi's film that they ended up making their next films without any studio support. "Digitally shot true blue independent films," he said. "One doesn't need money to make films. What you need is the will to go through the rigors of making films. Money is incidental which comes anyway."

Looks like Harishchandrachi Factory is striking a chord both film professionals and the average film buff. AllVoices.com writer Amanda Sodhi brings you an in-depth interview with the film's director, Paresh Mokashi.

You were never involved in any facet of the film industry before, and now your directorial debut, Harishchandrachi Factory is representing Indian cinema for consideration in the best foreign film category at the Oscars. How does it feel?

Pleasantly surprised!

Life must have changed a lot for you.

I never imagined my film would be liked by so many. I just went ahead and did it. Whatever followed was unimagined. Yes, life has changed a bit. I am giving interviews all the time. People are taking interest in me. It's normal-it happens to anybody who is in the limelight (smiles).

Tell us a bit about your background and how you made the giant leap into film direction.

I started as an actor. My theatre group, Theatre Academy Pune, was a big and progressive theatre company. In my college years, I got exposed to many things when I joined this group. World cinemaWorld cinema was one of them.

I started doing back stage work, then little roles followed by main roles. Then shifting to Mumbai was inevitable. But, I could not handle this actor's struggle in Mumbai. I was very bad at auditions! Whatever work I got was because people saw me on stage.

Later, in 1999, I abandoned acting and got established as a writer, director on Marathi stage. I directed a play in 1999 for Prithvi International Theatre Festival because of my friends Ramu Ramanathan and Sanjna Kapoor. It was a critical and commercial success. Other plays also became successful and I became writer and director and I survived.

In 2005, the idea of making a film struck me when I read about Mr. Phalke and the making of India's first feature film. Since 2005, I got involved in this film and I am still with it. After its release in January, I will go back to theatre and then come to films again.

Was it difficult directing a film without any formal training?

Not really. I understood that even if you don't have any knowledge on filmmaking, it's ok. A director has to be clear on what he wants. The rest will follow.

Many of our AllVoices.com readers are non-Indians who are not entirely familiar with Indian cinema, more specifically your film Harishchandrachi Factory. Could you tell them a bit about your film?

Harishchandrachi Factory is the first ever film made on Dadasaheb Phalke, pioneer of Indian film industry. He made India's first feature film in 1913 and today it's the world's largest film industry producing about 1000 films per year. How Mr. Phalke made his first feature film is the story my film is showing. I am showing the adventures of the Phalke family in the making of first Indian feature-Raja Harishchandra.

What inspired you to make a biopic about Dadasaheb Phalke?

Phalke himself! I read his biography written by Bapu Watve in early 2005. Since then I am under his spell! But it's not a biopic. I am concentrating only on those couple of years in which he made his first film.

What were some aspects of Phalke's life that fascinated you so much?

His scientific temperament and passion. He did not care about his financial condition. He just did what he liked.

You actually mortgaged your home to make the film, just like Phalke.

Not an important thing. Many people have done it in past and many will do it in future.

Did your family have any apprehensions?

It's their credit entirely.

Did you incur a lot of difficulties in making the film?

No. Once the decision regarding this kind of finance was made, it was easy. No serious problems at all.

What was the film's budget? How many days did you have to shoot the film? Many of our readers are unaware of how different the film making conditions are in India compared to Hollywood. Take us through the process briefly.

I knew from the beginning that this is going to be the costliest Marathi film till date. Because of it's period story, I did everything to give justice to the technical requirements of the film. We spent close to 4 crore rupees ($800,000 to $900,000 USD). We started in April 2008 and finished in December 2008. It took 60 shooting days and a couple of months of post production work. I don't know how Hollywood makes films so I can't compare, but according to general knowledge, Hollywood is very professional and disciplined. We are not. But then there pros and cons of every system. We are ok with what we have developed. Let's see if we can improve the conditions in general.

Your film is in Marathi, whereas Hindi is more popular language for Indian films. Were you advised against this?

Some friends mentioned it but I was quite clear about Marathi. It's my language, I am comfortable in it and so is my cast and crew. Now, when you make a film in your language this comfort and ease gets transformed on screen too and makes an impact on the pictorial quality of film. Thus it becomes a stronger picture, which breaks language barriers. I wanted to achieve this. So instead of making a film for larger market, I made a film the way I wanted, and now even larger markets are following the film! A film is or must be a film first, its language should become immaterial.

But, you're coming out with a dubbed Hindi version of the film, right?

We are discussing that.

Most Indian films rely heavily on big stars...

Because that's all their attraction point is. Stars, song and dance, etc. It's considered safe commercially, still 95% films with this formula, flop. That's why nowadays people are coming up with different kind of subjects and attracting finances. Regional language cinema in India was always a better cinema. It started experimenting with films long ago and have produced plenty of good Indian films.

Harishchandrachi Factory doesn't follow the Indian trend of including song-and-dance numbers. How important do you think it is for Indian films to break away from this stereotype?

I don't blame them-it's our filmmaking tradition. Fine. It's just that very seldom they come up with good song and dances, or justifiable ones! I also would like to try it some day.

Harishchandrachi Factory hasn't been heavily publicized. Is this part of the dilemma most newcomer directors face in India?

It was not a dilemma but a strategy in my case. Harishchandrachi Factory did not have all those typical commercial elements to attract, so we took the other road. We started with film festivals. With every award we won and shows that happened, word-of-mouth publicity started developing. Each person who saw it became our PR agent. That's how many big companies started approaching us and finally we found partners in UTV and Paprika Media. Then the Oscar selection happened and the film is getting widely released in January, first in Maharashtra, then all over India, and then maybe globally. Because it was my money I was patient enough to let things develop rather than release the film in hurry and ruin everything.

How is generating pre-Oscar buzz surrounding your film in the US coming along?

It's fine. We did six shows. People started talking. Hollywood Reporter praised the film, it grew more. Let's see...

You've interacted with both Indians and non-Indians who have seen the film. What have been people's reactions?

I was pleasantly surprised again to find the humor and pictorial quality breaking the cultural and language barriers. Non-Indians were interested and curious to know more. Basically, Harishchandrachi Factory is about making of India's first feature film back in 1913. It's about every filmmaker's struggles. This universal feel is helping the film reach out to many more.

Why do you think people should see the film?

Any good film should be seen. Academically or historically important themes would be added attractions. But, ultimately it has to be a good, engaging film.

Any other projects in the pipeline?

There are a couple of subjects in my head. But, first I will direct a couple of plays. Then I'll come back to films by the end of next year.

Do you have any Indian film recommendations for non-Indians?

Hindi film recommendations would be Do Bheega Zameen, Pyaasaa, Guide, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Sooraj Ka Satwa Ghodda. Marathi film recommendations are Manus, Amrit Manthan, Shwaas, Valu, Gabhricha Paus, Gandha and Tingya.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers?

Watch Harishchandrachi Factory in theatres!

It's been a pleasure talking to you, Paresh.

Same here!

All the best for the Oscars.

Thank you.


Written and directed by Paresh Mokashi, Harishchandrachi Factory releases on January 22, 2010. Produced by Ronnie Screwvala (UTV), Smiti Kanodia (Paprika Media) and Paresh Mokashi (Mayasabha), the film is 98 minutes long and stars Nandu Madhav, Vibhawari Deshpande, Ambarish Deshpande, Mohit Gokhale, Dilip Joglekar, Dheeresh Joshi, Ketan Karande, Atharva Karve, Mayur Khandge, Vaibhav Mangle, GaneshGanesh Mayekar, Sandip Pathak, Gary Richardson, Gary Tantony and Pravin Tarde.