Arwa Mamaji, Director

I have always observed the disparity of the haves and the have-nots in our city of Mumbai. Somewhere in my subconscious it must have affected to an extent to which it reproduced itself in the form of a script. I could play the visuals that you now see on film over and over again. That's when I decided this must be it. I wrote the script as any writer would without taking into consideration the shortcomings of its execution. A short film could never draw in a budget to shoot in the locations that one finally sees in the film. But if I had considered these factors, I would be compromising on my creativity.

The cast was selected with great difficulty. I did not want a nurtured actor though I knew it would be easy and sensible to use a boy who was exposed to the medium. Instead I approached various organizations that work with street children and then finally found Aman who lives in a chawl in Malad, a suburb of Mumbai. I had to work very hard with him. I met him several times to get him acquainted with me. I also took him to all the locations so that I could familiarize him with his surroundings knowing this would help him. Which it did. The technical crew of some of the best people in the line was put together with the kind help and support of Dungarpur films who produced and financed the film.

The film was shot in one shift in the onset of the monsoon. Thankfully the weather gods were on my side since I wanted an overcast sky which existed due to a downpour the previous day.

I wanted a hand held feel to the film so that it would create a feeling of promptness. Children are very difficult to work with since they do not understand what you want out of them. You need to get to perform by getting them angry or upset. You need to let the camera role without them being aware. Also with our schedule where we covered a lot of locations, it became difficult for Aman to reproduce the energy in some shots. However his fatigue only added more character to the film in my opinion.

Every shoot teaches you something you would not have learned otherwise. The pressures are different. One incident that instantly comes to mind is the scene on marine drive. It was high tide and I wanted Aman to walk on the parapet. Now he had done that during rehearsals on other days but the tide then was low so it did not matter. On the day of the shoot due to the heavy rainfall on the previous day Aman refused to walk on the parapet since the waves were lashing onto the pavement. It was difficult however we managed to convince him to walk. There is a very small portion of it in the final film. Also, since we were shooting without permission, the camera crew ran into the van as soon as they saw the police. That was new for me, since I did not understand what was happening for 5 minutes until I saw the police.

There was no video assist on the shoot so when I saw the rushes I was just excited since it was my first shoot in film, and as I saw the edit take shape it was sheer magic, the magic of cinema.

As I began my round of screenings, people seemed really appreciate Aman’s performance. I think the rapport I built with him for two weeks before the shoot really helped in filming him during his mood swings. When the film was screened in Marbella, Spain people seemed to appreciate the overall feel of the film since they felt it was thought-provoking. They seemed to come out with a feeling of melancholy which is what one was trying to portray.

The film has won the award for the best short film at the IDPA Awards in India and it has also won the best short film at the Marbella Film Festival in Spain. These awards act as energy booster to further work on projects that one finds creatively fulfilling.

I have already started work on another film. I have no idea what length it is going to be. However I do know that once it ready I will definitely make it. I have no idea where I will generate the revenue from, but I have learned that the passion is the drive…