Indian star Manoj Bajpayee’s film Joram saw it North American Premiere at Chicago International Film Festival recently. In an exclusive interview, director Devashish Makhija and producer Ashima Avasthi talk about the experience of working on the film, its politics and agenda, and much more.
You have worked with him in your previous ventures Tandav and Bhosle. How was it getting back with Manoj Bajpayee?
Makhija: You know, I always flip this question when I’m asked this question. It’s not me getting back with Manoj, it’s Manoj getting back with me. He’s the reason these films get made. Even with Bhosle, he spent nearly three years getting those four-five producers…those independent producers who finally made the film. And with ZEE as well, he’s the one who brought them to the table. He read the script in 2016, and we tried a few times to set it up and it wasn’t working out. More than an actor, Manoj is an enabler for me. He’s pretty much my guardian angel of independent cinema. My milestone films – a short film called Tandav, Bhosle, and now Joram – could all happen because Manoj helped me take the ideas to the next level. I am because of him.
Do you wish to elaborate on the special additions he brings?
Makhija: His acting is very visible to the world. He’s now an OTT star and that medium has done justice to his talent. He was in the wings for 20, 25 years, waiting to prove himself. What I always try and bring to everyone’s notice is the fact that he’s an enabler. He goes beyond being an actor. I won’t name them, but I’ve taken my scripts to many of his peer actors. Often when they say yes to a film, that is all they do. They come back to us, when it’s set up. This man (Bajpayee) walks with me, he walks with me to find the producers and the backing, to actually set up the entire project.”
How was it working with Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub?
Makhija: Zeeshan is a very special soul. He’s an enlightened and sort of a hyper-aware artist. He’s not just an actor, he comes in with a 360-degree understanding of life and is the most well-read actor I have worked with. He has an astute understanding of philosophy, and politics. He is one of those few actors whom you may give that one little insight and he exponentially grows his performance into ten things that you didn’t tell him. He is like a warrior. He’s like a samurai warrior on set. Sometimes, he has a more allround understanding of a scene thann I have. He came in last minute as we were not able to sort dates with the actor who was playing the part.
You shot portions of the film in a real mine. How was it shooting that chase and the shootout sequence?
Makhija: It is more than true. It was backbreaking. And we shot in the iron ore mine in Jharkhand, which is one of the hottest state in the country in summers. And we shot in the hottest month of the year in May. So it was about 51-52 degrees on a good day. And we went in there with a crew of almost 300 people. Part of the scenes were shot in a working iron ore mine with all those massive machines moving around. It was quite surreal. It was like being in a movie. The behind-the-scenes of that shoot is as breathtaking as the scenes in the movie. We didn’t expect it to be that extreme,
How did the logistics for shooting in that real location, pan out?
Avasthy: I think the logistics of getting this film done itself – getting the permissions, preparing the actors to shoot in that extreme weather. How do you even remember your lines when you’re sweating away in 50 degrees? It’s insane amount of work. I’d give it to Devashish and his crew that their pre-production work was so spot on. You can make your shoot easier or tougher depending on how prepared you are. So I think he had already done a lot of the work, broken down the scenes so that no time was wasted. There was no on-the-spot efforts to figure out what to do and how to execute things. We were very aware that this is one film where things may not go as per the plan. So the best you can do it is plan it to as much as possible and then just hope for the best.”
How do you balance your stories with the aim of taking the message outside the echo chambers of the ideology?
Makhija: How do you balance that? Well, that can only be managed by collaborators. If Zee Studio was not on this film, I doubt I could have managed it because my previous films have all been made by independent producers. God bless them. They were very, very brave souls to back films like those. But it’s when you hit that huge wall of distribution is where all of us just put our weapons down because we are not able to crack that beast. Distribution is where films like these just don’t know how to get out there. So, with Zee Studio on board from before we even started prep, and I’ve never seen, I mean, I’ve never experienced making a film where I’ve got a distributor, the biggest in the country, walking with me from the time I’ve not even started prep. So, that sort of started opening up this film to the possibilities of reaching people.
Ashima: Yeah, I think you’re right, because even as a studio, one of the things that we do very, we produce almost like 25-30 films a year, across seven languages. We are also very clear and very focused on the kind of stories we want to tell and where we want to travel with it and where we want to, how we want to distribute it, what is the kind of, understanding our audience is something that we try and work on. I’m saying there is the state of theaters that has been in the last two, three years. So no one can, with a hand on their heart, say that I know exactly what’s gonna work and what’s not, and neither can we. As we know our film, our focus is on the story and we’re telling a story from our heart, the rest will happen. There are no half-hearted attempts from Zee Studios on stories, be it a mass entertainer (like Gadar Ek Prem Katha), or something like Joram.
Do you see Joram getting a smooth theatrical release in India, or do you see it facing any hurdles with the Indian censor board(CBFC)?
Yes, we’re releasing on December 1st. We had a great festival run across the yearand we premiered in every single continent. Now, out audience has also matured a lot. The fact that when Barbie did better across the world, Oppenheimer did better than Barbie in our country, tells us there’s an audience.
I don’t think so (that CBFC may object to the film). Honestly, I think we’ve been very cautious …because we’ve not taken any political stand on it. And that has really, like I said, it’s given us a lot of confidence after we’ve seen audience reactions across. It has been a universal response across the globe that people have at the end of the film. That was really always the agenda. It was never to say this is right, or that is wrong. The idea was always to make people question and make them notice all this. Because honestly, there is no answer. Like I said in the beginning, the attempt was to make a film that reaches out beyond the echo chambers. So despite what my politics might be, I consider a film an organic creature. So the film’s politics need not be as extreme as my politics. And the whole idea was to start a conversation, not to draw fences. And the thrust of this film is humanitarian and it’s environmental, more than political.
When people ask me what inspired me to write Joram, I always say it’s Avatar. Given that I’ve been an arthouse filmmaker until this film, here was an attempt to sort of reach out as far wide as Avatar did. Obviously we may not reach that wide, but the attempt was to go there and to affect and move, but not sort of be propagandic. So I don’t see why the censor board would have any issues either. Not just the Indian censor board, any censor board across the world would have an issue with this film.
For us, the core of this film is a father-daughter story. It’s a father who is basically running into his past to try and change his past to protect his daughter today. And at the backdrop, you also see what the entire world is going through, man versus development. While you see a bigger picture in the background, all of that is affecting one father and his daughter.
How does ZEE Studio go about selecting projects?
Avasthi: For us, the germ is always a story that we want to tell. We had a really good year. We’ve had five projects that did extremely well and have been traveling across the globe. Joram premiered in Rotterdam, we had a Marathi film at Berlinale. Then, we had Kennedy at Cannes Film Festival. Joram has been travelling to various festivals. We have had a series that was an official market selection at Berlinale. On one hand, we have a Gadar Ek Prem Katha – mass entertainment – and it definitely brought back commercial cinema in India. On the other hand, we also have films such as Joram that have been travelling globally in film festivals.
We will continue to cater to our own Indian audience. As a studio, our job is to make stories travel. We need to find, curate stories and build on stories that can actually transcend boundaries. That’s really how we pick our subjects also. We have always tried to make the regular and mass entertainment films, as well as those with a global language and reach.
(The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity).
Read the full article here