Charudutt Acharya, Director

The late Gul Anand, Film Producer and well known Foodie, once said to me that

“Popular films should be like the popular food of the land. Mumbai Industry films are like Mumbai restaurant rice plates”.

Mumbai Rice plates have a bit of everything – they are colourful, have different tastes and different textures. In fact, offering many dishes and value for money - ‘Sasta, sundar aur tikaao’ as the line goes. This idea stuck in my head somewhere.

The last time I had directed anything was way back in 1998. After a nasty, disabling accident, I had turned writer for the following seven years. Now, almost healed, I was itching to get back to directing. Inspiration and the opportunity came, when I chanced upon a website of the Berlinale Talent Campus which will take place in Feb 2006. It sounded pretty interesting. They were inviting up and coming filmmakers to present either a one-minute show reel or a five-minute theme based film made specifically for this festival. The topic was Films on ‘food, taste and hunger’. This would serve as a qualifying film for the Talent Campus AND if of further merit, would make it to the Competition Section of the Festival of Slow Food in Italy, in April 2006.

The 'late lateef' that I am, as usual, I had chanced upon the opportunity pretty late. I quickly wrote out my script and rushed to my cameraman, FIII batch mate and friend Sanjay Nair. Together, we conferred with his wife Maya, who multi-tasked as Producer and Casting Director. She had one look to the script and said ‘ho jayega’ and that is exactly how the film got made. Ho gaya!

We had an apology for a budget – just a few thousand rupees from my savings. However, once we got going, it POURED help. Actors, technicians, assistants, equipment, post production facilities, music, catering, and almost everything and anything came on good will and love, a desire to help me to get this film ready. The Filming experience was so much like the five-minute continuity films that are made in the Film Institute at the end of the first year. We were getting props from the houses of friends; some body was getting this, some body arranging that. Actors were assisting; my parents, wife and kids were the ‘extras’.

With in couple of days, it was all set. We were ready to shoot. We shot on Beta format. I was more comfortable with it. I have no idea of DV as yet. When I directed last in 1998, it was probably not even around professionally. Also, my cameraman Sanjay had his own reasons to shoot on this format. He felt that the kind of DV cam available in our budget was not the best for the kind of fiction work we were attempting. More over, for the same budget, we were getting a beta set up to shoot, courtesy his good will with the equipment guys. So Beta it was.

We shot for two days. We had four locations. Day one was restaurant, roads (nightmare!) and a preview theater. Day two one ‘serial bunglow’ where we shot the Filmmaker’s room, the Producer’s home and the turn table shots of the Rice Plate.

Editing started the very next day. Jabeen, the editor, patiently explained to me how the FCP works, as she went about her work with brisk efficiency. For me it was a two-day crash course in digital postproduction. It was fascinating to watch how flexible editing had become and there were so many possibilities of edit patters and also visual correction.

The edit finalized, I rushed the cut on a VCD to Vivek Philip for the music. Vivek sat up the entire night in his studio and composed the music for Rice Plate. The next afternoon, he showed the film to me with the music. Man wasn’t I happy! But there was no time to exult. I straight hopped in to an auto, and rushed back to the editing room. Jabeen had finished the subtitling by then. After pasting the music, mixing and rendering, our master beta tape was ready.

From this beta master we took a transfer on Mini DV (the festival wanted the film on Mini DV) and couriered it to the Berlinale.

I have yet to hear from the Berlinale about the status of film. Their website says they will get back by the fifteenth of January 2006. My fingers are crossed!

So how has the film turned out? Well, there have been mixed reactions. For me like any Filmmaker who looks at his own work, some bits of the film work, many don’t. On the whole, I felt the tone of the film needed to be much more stylized. Also, there needed to be more story development and a stronger punch in the end. Well, I can go on and on about what could have been! But yes, I am pretty satisfied that I finally moved out of my Writer’s chair and made this little film.

I look at this film as my ‘baby step’ towards returning to direction. I hope to make a few more short fiction films in the near future, keep practicing, and then take my feature length scripts around. I don’t know how I am going to find the funds for these shorts. Maybe one month I will do some hectic television script writing, and next month shoot a short and then back to television scriptwriting! Or if there is anybody who wants to bankroll my shorts, well, he or she is more than welcome to do so.

Meanwhile, I have just got to know that ‘Rice Plate’ has been selected for the Mumbai International film Festival 2006 in the International Competition section. Makes the effort of making the film worthwhile!

Finally, a big thank you to each and every one who has held my hand during this ‘baby step’.