At 31, Mumbaikar Abhishek Jawkar is a successful Telugu film distributor, a newbie Marathi film producer, has made his Bollywood directorial debut with crime thriller Missing On A Weekend, had his run-in with the country’s controversial censor board slapping a legal notice against it, and launched singer Hariharan’s son as an actor!
That’s a lot to begin with! But, slowly recovering from the mayhem, far away from Mumbai, and in Bengaluru to explore distribution for his maiden venture, Jawkar spoke to MetroPlus . “Since 2012 I’ve been writing scripts for myself. But something I read about a German tourist being raped in Goa triggered off this particular script that ended up as Missing On A Weekend .
I felt this thriller should be the first film I make, not a typical love story,” he says. And quickly adds: “This is also a commercial film. In the 110 minutes I’ve managed four songs too (one of which he has written). I believe that a filmmaker should enjoy watching his own film.” Abhishek admits he only watches typical Bollywood “masala” films.
Coming down to the censorship controversy, Abhishek says that while the CBFC started off asking (verbally) for a whopping 50 cuts with an ‘A’ certificate while he was expecting a U/A certification. He ultimately received a list of seven cuts to be made after he slapped a legal notice on the Board.
It all began when the film’s trailer was released and had a line that said ‘Goa is the new Delhi’ for crime. The PR team of the Goa Tourism Board apparently got in touch with the CBFC asking all references to Goa to be cut because it would spoil the image of the State. “People like us we back off after our job is done. The funny thing is before you shoot in Goa you have to submit a synopsis to their film society seeking permission. We had got a clearance and we even shot for seven days in the Calangute police station! So I decided to fight for the betterment of my film. With the kind of cuts suggested, my film will become a web series!” He has now appealed to the revising committee.
Of course, all this has meant that the release date be pushed further. “Planning a film release date is like planning your wedding! Right now there are too many big films coming out. So my film will be released on August 26.” Missing On A Weekend is also the debut film for Karan Hariharan, son of ghazal and Bollywood playback singer Hariharan. Abhishek knew Hariharan and had met his son in when he first weighed over a 100 kilos, and two years later when he was half his size. It was a surprise audition that landed Karan the role, says Abhishek. Versatile actor Pawan Malhotra essays the role of a top cop in the film.
Abhishek, an economics graduate says he was “an aimless kid in college” pretty clueless about what he would do once he finished. “I wanted to go to Australia or the UK to do an MBA and have a good time,” he laughs. A friend who had seen him do event management in his college days set him up in a film production company where he started at the very bottom, buying film reels etc and worked his way up to making documentaries for Fox Entertainment and History channels.
Then he got an opportunity to invest in film distribution with the original Singham . “When you make good money on your first project, you keep going!” he says and went on to distribute a host of films including Yamudu, Golimaar and the Telugu dubbed versions of the Harry Potter series.
He set up a production house Red Bulb Studios two years back and co-produced Marathi films Dabba Ais Pais and Sugar, Salt Ani Prem . He’s currently working on a script for a friend on a Marathi film and hoping to start filming his second Hindi film, a “women centric” one by December 2016.
