From being a broke 24-year-old to directing a National-award-winning film that will represent India at the Oscars, life has come a full circle for Chaitanya Tamhane with his debut movie ‘Court’.
Tamhane, 28, says he never expected the Marathi film to have the kind of journey that it has but it was a story that he always believed in.
“I feel very fortunate and grateful for the way it has been received. We did not make the movie with that many expectations. We were not sure what will happen but we were surprised constantly. It is my debut film so it is a great feeling,” Chaitanya told in Tokyo. He is there to attend a film festival.
“Court” saw off competition from 29 other films including ‘Killa’, ‘NH 10’, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, ‘Baahubali’, ‘Haider’ and ‘Masaan’ to be named as India’s official entry to the Oscars yesterday.
The director says the announcement came as a surprise as they had kept their expectations low, considering the unpredictability around the selection.
The road to success has not been easy for Chaitanya, who first started writing the film when he was 24.
“I was 24, broke, with no money and there was a lot of pressure from my family to earn. Till that time, I had done my own projects like a play, a short film and a documentary but that did not earn me any money. I was very depressed at that time.
“Court” revolves around the trial of a folk singer. Chaitanya says it was challenging and expensive to shoot the film in Mumbai.
“There were many challenges. We had a big cast of non-professional actors and shooting in Mumbai is very expensive. Also, people have very set ways of working because they have worked in Bollywood and this was a different way of filmmaking but in the end it worked out well for us”, he added.
