Coming-of-age cinema, in mainstream Bollywood parlance, would refer to feel-good films like Wake Up Sid but not a hard-hitting film like Udaan . We ask Udaan's maker Vikramaditya Motwane on the lack of such films showing teenage angst as it exists and he says, “Yes, I don't know why there are very few hard-hitting films on such subjects. Hard-hitting films are remembered for a long time.”
Vikramaditya was in the city to inaugurate ‘Cannes in India' film festival organised by Alliance Française and Moving Images. Talking to us prior to the screening of Udaan , he developed the idea drawing from personal observations, a few incidents from his own life and his father's life. He wrote the first draft in three weeks. But the making took seven years, as he went from one producer to another. “I didn't have a star. There are no popular stars in the 18 to 20 age group. I didn't want to cast any older actor act as an 18 year old. Finally I found Rajat Barmecha who was 20,” he says.
The film got selected to compete at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and then made profit when it released commercially. Bollywood sat up and took notice. For his second film, which he is now working on, Vikramaditya had no trouble finding a producer. “I don't hold grudges,” he smiles. “In this industry, you are as good as your last hit. Even a film like Rang De Basanti struggled to find producers. I was just a blue-eyed assistant director,” he says. Blue-eyed since he had assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Devdas and first visited Cannes when Devdas was screened there. “Anurag (Kashyap) and I have been good friends for a long time. I worked with him but he never let me assist him. I don't know why. I think more than Udaan , Anurag's Dev.D made aspiring filmmakers confident that people were ready for something new,” he says.
Vikramaditya's second film is much larger than Udaan and the director is in talks with Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha for the lead roles. “Nothing is confirmed. I am not against stars. Young actors today are open to ‘good cinema', like the actors of the 50s and 60s. I don't like the ‘art film' differentiation,” says Vikramaditya, who feels that the growing scope for smaller films is palpable only now. “ Hyderabad Blues set the trend and it has taken 12 years for filmmakers like be accepted in the mainstream,” he points out.
Reflecting on Cannes, he remembers working round the clock to complete Udaan's postproduction. “I was thrilled that the film was selected. But Udaan was far from complete, in terms of postproduction. I lost count of days as I finished it. My defining moment was when I finally went to Cannes and saw my name along with international filmmakers,” he says.
Vikramaditya was recently part of the jury of Dimensions Mumbai, the short film segment of Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) film festival. Clearly impressed by the fresh talent, he says, “We were struck by the interesting stories that these films were based upon. The technique needed refinement but none of the stories were boring. We are poised for interesting times ahead.”
