Event : NEN (National Entrepreneurship network) E-Week ,Chrysalis 2013
Date: 14th February 2013
Place: ELTIS Auditorium, Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research, Pune
Place: ELTIS Auditorium, Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research, Pune
On a
pleasant Thursday evening in Pune, on the eve of Valentine’s Day , while there
were some youngsters spending precious
moments with their sweethearts, some professing their love to their beloved, some
love birds whispering sweet nothings into each others’ ears, there was a troop of
young aspiring entrepreneurs ,currently students of SICSR, seated in the dim
lights of ELTIS auditorium with dreams in their eyes and fiery aspirations in
their hearts watching a film about an entrepreneurial journey of 4 boys in their mid twenties who
have set out to start something of their own : Shuttlecock Boys.
The film
screening was preceded by a round of introduction from the Producer of the
film, Pankaj Johar and was followed by an interactive session with the director
of the film, Hemant Kumar Gaba.
Here are
some excerpts from the session..
Students: Can you please say a few words
about you and about your film?
Pankaj : Hemant and I go a long way back. We
are friends since childhood. I am from Finace background and Hemant is from IT.
This film is somewhat autobiographical in nature. We had quit our lucrative
jobs, Hemant had come back from New York and we came together to make this film. We
hired the technical team from FTII. We invested our savings and borrowed money from
friends and relatives. So, this was a big gamble for us. Later we ran into
trouble. The film had caught lab fire but finally it was digitally restored and
we could complete it.
Students: Congratulations for your film. We
loved every bit of it.
Hemant: Thank you. And thank you so much
for coming together to watch this film. I would also like to thank Symbiosis
and National Entrepreneurship Network for sponsoring this event.
Students: What challenges did you face to make
this film?
Hemant : First of all, I was new to this
field. I had initially attended some workshops but that was not enough. So, I
was still a rookie. We managed to shoot the film in 22 days .We had shot in
film format. We ran into trouble when the film had caught lab fire where it was
stored and after too much struggle and following up we finally managed to get
it digitally restored. Then dealing with vendors at different level is not as
easy as it seems. Anybody who wants to be a filmmaker or an entrepreneur has to
go through these initial levels of hiccups. You cannot pass by them.
Students: Can you say something about your
cast and crew. Where are they now?
Hemant: Aakar
Kaushik is a media student from AAFT (Asian Academy of Film and Television)
,Gurgaon. Currently he is working as an assistant director in Yash Raj Films.
Manish Nawani is from Barry John’s Theatre. He is working on a couple of
projects currently. Alok Kumar has appeared in a lot of television serials. He
has also done some episodes of Gumraah. Shanti Bhushan Roy is an FTII passout.
This was his first project before he went on to work for Aamir
Khan’s Satyamev Jayate.
Students: Did you have to essay multiple
roles while making the film or you just concentrated on direction?
Hemant : I did have to essay multiple
roles i.e. from overseeing and managing the production to even ironing some of
the actors clothes at times (smiles). There were also a lot of non-actors
involved. So, there were times where some dialogs needed to be improvised in
the last minute. There was no dedicated dialog writer for that, so I also had
to manage in such places.
Students : When did this filmmaking bug bite
you? What was the event which made you leave your lucrative career behind and
get into movies?
Hemant: It was a book that I read that got
me interested. I was not really happy with my software career and wanted to do
something of my own. I had tried my hand at music earlier but had failed
miserably. There was this book called Rebel
without a Crew written by Robert Rodriguez where the filmmaker has
described how he went on to make his first independent film El Mariachi. Pankaj
had asked me to get this book from the UK. I had brought this book for him but
it was lying untouched for some time. Out of curiosity I started reading it and
I got completely involved and intrigued with the entire idea about it. But once
I decided that I would do this and never look back, this was it. I believed
that there is a huge road ahead which I needed to cover.
Students : How did you chance upon the idea
i.e. the concept of the movie ?
Hemant : It basically came from what I was
going through and what I observed about people around me often during lunch
hours in office.
Students : Any advice that you would like to
provide to aspiring entrepreneurs ?
Hemant : Honestly , it’s to each on his own.
The voice has to come from within. Till the time that happens there will not be
any point. It could be anything. It could be a product. It could be a mobile
app. It could be starting a service. You just need to listen to the call from
within. That’s all I can say.
Students: What risks did you have to take and
what sacrifices did you have to make?
Hemant: When I was in software I had a
pretty decent lifestyle which I could not afford for the last four five years
now. So that is the sacrifice .But I would not really call it a sacrifice.
Making sure that there is enough support from family and friends is the key
thing. This is what keeps you going.
Students: There
was a news article which quoted that you met Sudhish kamath( Independent Film-maker, Director: Good Night
Good Morning, Film critic : The Hindu) and he introduced you to PVR
Director’s Rare and now your film has been released by them. How did this
entire thing happen? What was your journey like in marketing this film?
Hemant: With PVR it took us around 8
months of follow up before we could get them to release this and with marketing
we mostly relied on social media. We also managed to get some peer buzz from
online articles and some newspaper coverage. We managed to get some decent
reviews across the board which we were really happy about. We were not actually
expecting it. We were expecting an average rating of 2 – 2.5 out of 5 but we
managed to get 3+. That was something we
were really excited about. One more thing was that the film got featured in top
10 independent films by IANS (Indo-Asian News Service) in January 2012 but we
were not really expecting it. So we were really happy about it (smiles).I met
Sudish Kamath in Film Bazaar in 2011. His film (Good Night Good Morning) was
getting showcased which I had seen a couple of times in film-festivals like
MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Images), so this is how I got in touch with him.
This is a very small network-driven industry. Twitter is also another
tool/medium where we started interacting. Slowly we got to meet some other
people as well , either they are film critics or independent filmmakers.
Students: Have you ever considered going back
to the IT industry or have you started off with your production house in full
swing, taking up projects to work upon?
Hemant : There was a time in 2009 when I
was almost penniless living with five people in Mumbai in a congested apartment.
That was the time I felt that I need to start working again. I thought I would
continue with filmmaking but work in IT to earn some money. I also appeared for
two three interviews. Thankfully I never got selected (laughs). But, now we
have decently build a production house whose name is Penny Wise Films Private
Limited which I go on with my friend and partner Pankaj Johar who introduced
the film. We are also working on features and documentaries. Recently we have
done a documentary called ' Still Standing ' which is about a gentleman who is quadriplegic for the last 26 years This film went on to win the Dadasaheb Phalke award by Maharashtra Government and
Mumbai International Film Festival. It was a part of Satyamev Jayate disability
episode as well. And the NGO which backed this film managed to rake in 1 Crore
in donation which was splendid. Of course we did not get any buy off but still
it was a great moment for us (smiles). Then we started working at corporate
films as well for Punjab Government, United Nations, TEDx Delhi, TEDx Jaipur
and Skoda. Right now we are working for a client called India Africa Shared
Future. Then recently we went to Davos for the World Economy Summit to shoot
something for four to five days. So, now things are building up. We also want
to start working at ad films. These are really important to keep the money
circulation going on. We are also working on three more projects, a documentary
which is currently in production and the other two are feature like fiction
projects one of which we will start in 2014 i.e. next year. We are targeting a list of international film festival markets and hope to set a footprint there.So let us
see if that happens.
Students: That is spectacular feat. We loved
your film. We learnt so much from it and from the interactive session with you.
We hope that we would inculcate whatever we have learnt here not only in our
professional lives but also in our personal lives. Thank you so much for being
with us. Wish you all the best .We hope to see and hear more of you in the days
to come.
Hemant: Thank you.
-Deep Shome