Lured by the digital move

In spite of having directed films like Tuglak and Huliraaya, director Aravind Kaushik’s name is synonymous with his first film Nam Areal Onina

Think Nam Areal Ondina and you automatically think of director Aravindh Kaushik. The film has a few curious elements in them and introduced today’s star Rakshit Shetty. He was cast as the second lead, while Anish Tejeswar, Meghana Gaonkar played the lead and Arjun Janya composed the music.

Aravind, who started off as a voice-over artiste also dabbled in directing a few serials, is currently working on Kamali , a fiction series aired on Zee Kannada. The director holds Nam Areal Ondina close to his heart as it was his very first venture and shares the story of the making of the film. The films has an interesting manner of story narration -- the time, which oscillates between the past and the present. What hits you the most is the tragic ending of the film and Aravind justifies this choice with, “Yes, people had problems with the ending. But it was the ending that triggered the idea for the story.

The idea for me to come into films was because of the digital move which happened in the late 90s. Till then the idea of filmmaking was conservative. It was reel-oriented, where we had to buy a certain amount of stock and make a film. That was also a time when the multimedia, graphics and digital imaging came in. I was always a writer and a book of mine titled

Not For The Connoisseur -- a collection of poems and short stories was published by the Writers Workshop, Kolkata when I was 19. I knew writing was a way for me.

Soon I started assisting a few directors and getting to know people from the industry. During my conversations with them, I discovered writing carries a lot of potential when used with images. I started converting my writing into movies using the digital cameras. I completed a filmmaking course and a crash-course in non-linear editing. I realised that technology offered umpteen possibilities with digital cameras. That was what opened the door for me to make Nam Areal Ondina .

In 2003-4 my friends and I came together and started a short filmmaking forum and made short films every day with our cameras and edited them. All we did was take the camera, go out and just shoot. This way, our story telling techniques got better by the day and we decided to make a feature film and chose the script of

Nam Areal Ondina .

The industry had not opened up to the digital world then and I had to wait till those cameras were used to make a difference. In 2008, I realised it was time for me to bring my kind of storytelling on screen. Till then, I was acting in serials and dubbing.

I wrote the script to see if we could bring in two stories – action and romance -- in one film. There is a different rhythm for action films and another for love stories. They have different patterns. I tried to bring the two patterns in one frame and bring in the realistic roadside action on one side and the dramatic romance on the other.

It was also because of the real-life action I had seen around me that inspired the story. I have seen many guys walking around their area like they own the place, with great attitude. Suddenly, one day, you see their photos on lamp posts and realise they are no more... probably killed in a brawl.

That is the story of my first film – about a man with no major aspirations in life, but just chases a girl and how that drama unfolds in his life. That is how the parallel storytelling also happens. What shook me was the ending. How we are emotionally connected to people, how an incident ends that relationship and how we look at that relationship itself, is what started triggered my film. The ending of this film was supposed to be the starting point for my next film. But that never happened.

It is easy to think of making a film, but you need to find a producer, which was tough. I was not the typical industry person per se . I had no clue how to narrate the story to the producer. Those days, there was a typical way of narrating a story. It had to be done in such a way that the film unravels itself in front of their eyes. I was not used to such histrionics. I did try and meet a few producers, but they were just not interested.

Neither did they take me seriously when I said I wanted to use the digital media as they thought I would end up making a short film. So, I started shooting the same film as a short film, edited it and set the music with Arjun. Once it was finished it we showed it to friends to see if anyone was interested in producing it. I met Nagendra Joyce, who stood by me and got three other producers on board and the film became a reality.

Next came the casting and we called for auditions. That was when Rakshit came to our office. He was a software engineer, doing theatre and came to audition for the lead role. Strangely, he could not even hold a cigarette in his hands and I felt he will not be able to carry off the rugged character. I told him to just stick around and we would see if there was any other part we could cast him in.

He would come in every day and we would all hang out together and became good friends. Ashok Kashyap offered to do the cinematography for my film. It was dream come true for me as I had worked with him and always looked up to him. I knew the film was in safe hands and had a strong team.

The other incident, I remember was when it was the 18th day of the shoot. I was still thinking who to cast in Rakshit’s role as I thought he was a bad actor and had no chance in the film industry. So I walked up to him as he was rehearsing his lines, and said, ‘look, Rakshit, I am dressed well today and am giving you a chance to act. You don’t pull it off in one take, I am going to simply replace you’.

After that, I saw a totally new Rakshit. He gave a brilliant shot in the very first take and went on to create history with his acting abilities.

As told to Shilpa Sebastian R

This column chronicles a director’s very first attempt