Director Nitin Kakkar says his wait has been a long one. Not just long but a tough one. With his directorial debut Filmistaan hitting the screen today the team isn’t just heaving a sigh a relief but retains its faith that it’s possible to make all kinds of cinema has been restored. After winning the National Award for the best feature film in 2012, Filmistaan waited for two long years to make it to the screens. In the meantime the movie travelled far and wide to major festivals and won accolades around the world,. Yet, Nitin says, he was waiting impatiently for the movie to hit the screens.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t get an offer for release, but I was given lesser number of prints. Since I believed in my work and my team’s best efforts I wasn’t ready to settle for a pittance. When other movies release with over thousand prints I was offered around fifty in the beginning, I declined all those offers until I got the offer of 450 prints. This number is acceptable because that is how major screens in cities can be targeted,” he explains.
As a director, he says size of the release matters. While he says so, he also says he believes in the ‘right time’ and destiny and this according to him is a best time for Filmistaan . Talking about the long wait, Nitin says he focussed his frustration and anger in a positive way and wrote another story based on the life in a circus. This story, according to him, goes against the norms of formulaic movies. “ Filmistaan doesn’t even have a female lead, this should explain how it is away from the formula. To add to this, the masala thadak-barak of items is also missing, so I guess I had to wait for the right time,” he laughs.
An ardent fan of Saadat Hasan Manto, Nitin has earlier compiled five of Manto’s stories into one story. “But I decided not to use it, because finding someone who believes in that kind of work is not an easy task,” he says.
So, is Filmistaan also a Manto inspiration? “No, my roots are in Lahore. My grand dad migrated from Lahore to India during the Partition. That sent me looking for my roots and made way for Filmistaan ,” smiles Nitin. So, how is Filmistaan different from Kya Dilli, Kya Lahore ? “ Filmistaan isn’t a political drama. It is about a man’s love for cinema and how he lands in a different land,” he explains.
As a film maker, he adds, “all kinds of cinema should be made available, but unfortunately only one kind is at our disposal.’ Talking about his humble beginning he feels he was introduced to the world of celluloid by his father who was a photographer. Nitin always felt drawn to the magic of image emerging out of a solution on a tray. “From there I went on to act in college and work as a production person for theatre, designed costumed, worked on sound etc. All this was just a preparation, albeit unknowingly, for cinema,” smiles Nitin.
