Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the toast of independent and unconventional Indian cinema today. A few years ago, when US-based filmmaker Prashant Bhargava met Nawazuddin, the actor had Black Friday and a few other films to his credit, and was largely unknown to mainstream cinema. Prashant wanted to audition Nawazuddin for his film Patang . This wasn’t going to be an audition where an actor had to do a ‘look test’ and emote sequences. Patang ’s casting director Anjali Punjabi took Nawazuddin to a crowded market and observed the actor exploring the market. “Nawaz walked to a fish stall, tested the back of the fish, then opened the mouth of the fish and smelled it, dropped it back on the cart and walked away casually with a mysterious expression. We knew we wanted this actor to be part of Patang ,” says Prashant Bhargava.
Similarly, he signed the vivacious and beautiful Sugandha Garg by just observing how she got friendly with children on a beach as she was shooting them with her camera.
Prashant’s unconventional method wasn’t limited to the casting process.
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Three years of research later, he shot the film with a largely Indian crew and child actors chosen from the city itself. “The Old City of Ahmedabad is a beautiful place and its people are warm. But it was not easy to shoot a film there, unlike in Mumbai or Delhi. We followed an organic method of shooting and I returned with 100 hours of footage. It took me three years to edit the film,” says Prashant.
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The finished product won hearts and was endorsed by film critic Roger Ebert. “Ebert is also a fine human being. His way of looking at films stems from his tremendous life experience. We also got good reviews in New York Times and LA Times ,” says Chicago-based Prashant. He found it easier to release Patang in the US, given his work experience in the country. Prashant has 15 years experience in commercials and music videos and his short film, Sangam , was screened at Sundance Film Festival.
As Prashant talks about Patang , his passion for filmmaking comes to the fore. “It’s been a tremendous journey for me,” he says, hoping to release the film in India between October and December this year.