At 31, Mumbaikar Abhishek Jawkar is a successful Telugu film distributor and a newbie Marathi film producer. He’s also made his Bollywood directorial debut recently with crime thriller Missing On A Weekend .
That’s a lot to begin with! But he’s slowly recovering from the mayhem, far away from Mumbai. “Since 2012, I’ve been writing scripts for myself,” says Jawkar. “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 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.” Jawkar admits he only watches typical Bollywood ‘masala’ films.
The film also had a run-in with the censor board. Jawkar says that CBFC initially asked (verbally) for 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,” says the director.
“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! 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 has been pushed further. “Planning a film release date is like planning your wedding! Right now there are too many big films coming out,” says Jawkar. “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. Jawkar knew Hariharan and had met his son at a time when the young boy weighed over 100 kilos. Two years later, Karan was half his size. It was a surprise audition that landed him the role, says Karan. Versatile actor Pawan Malhotra essays the role of a cop in the film.
Jawkar, 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 U.K. 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. Here, Jawkar started at the very bottom, buying film reels 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 Singham . “When you make good money on your first project, you keep going!” he says. Jawkar went on to distribute a host of films including Yamudu , Golimaar and the Telugu dubbed versions of the Harry Potter series.
Then Jawkar set up production house Red Bulb Studios two years ago and co-produced Marathi films Dabba Ais Pais and Sugar , Salt Ani Prem . He’s now 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.
Jawkar started at the bottom, buying film reels, and went on to make documentaries for Fox Entertainment
