It all started with The Thumri, a form of light Indian Classical music with songs of love and separation. Its uniqueness to me was that a singer could sing one word or one line in many different emotions. You could sing the line Shyam Bina Chain Na Aaye sadly, as written, or happily because Shyam is on his way home or angrily because he's with another lover. And I thought that it would be good to have a film with one scene and many different reactions to that scene. After all in life too we are constantly imagining the many different possible outcomes to any situation. For example, you have an interview for a job. You think 'Will I get it, will I not. If so then at what position/salary etc.

So, our thought was 'A woman is pregnant. She's had an affair. The baby may not be her husband's. How will he react? What will he do? Will he get angry or depressed, or violent or will he forgive her?' The film looks at all these possible events/ reactions/ moods/ rasa's in detail.

Though the concept was mine I could not have asked for a better team of writers.
We shared the same milieu of literature and films, and therefore the same language.
We were all interested in crafting dialogue the way its spoken and yet to make it interesting and dramatic without the stilted/formal way its normally used in Indian English films.

Once we decided we were going ahead with making the film, I wanted to work on my first film with a crew who knew me. Thus my cameraman, Sumantra Ghosal was my partner and the co-producer, the executive producer Vinod Iyer is our Producer for Ad films. The Editor Amit Karia has edited our ad films for over 10 years. The actors were the writers too. This meant a crew of like-minded people who understood the film and its spirit.

I didn't choose DV. DV chose me. We (as in Maia Katrak, Sanjay Sipahimalani and myself) were writing the script for over a year and a half. And we could have continued writing till never-never land. Sumantra suggested (insisted?) that we shoot a scratch version of the film to decide where it was going and whether we had any talent in us.

So, we shot for over 7 days with Boman Irani (to my mind one of the finest actors this country has produced) and Maia Katrak. We asked Sheeba to help us as the third character. We then edited the footage into an hour (we have our own media 100's) and we showed the film to family and friends (our fiercest critics!) and they approved. They gave us a green signal. So, we actually 'researched' the film before its final shoot. We then began 'rewriting' the parts that were not working (by then Boman Irani to become part of the writing team). And three months later we were ready to shoot.

We also opted for DV because:

1. I wanted my Partner to shoot the final film. He was critical to the process. He is a great guide and mentor.

2. I wanted the crew to be very small and personal. I like working with like minded people.

3. I wanted the actors (now with Anahita 'Anna' Uberoi included) to not get hampered by the technicalities of the film medium. This helped me get truth in their performances.

And most importantly I did not want to loose the philosophy behind the working method of the 'Scratch' film. Boman Irani and Maia's and Anna's 'wonderful performances' (as all critics have unanimously remarked) are all in part thanks to DV

We shot for approximately 17 days for the main film. We were chucked out of our location and had to manage in 2 other locations and make it look like the original flat. During the scratch film thanks to the psychological pressure of the script Maia fainted, Boman practically got a heart attack (we had to get a crisis Dr on set) and Sumantra fell ill. The only one who survived was me!

The editing took over 6 months because of the long takes and the style of shooting. Amit deserves an award because without his patience, perseverance and understanding of the script the film would not be what it is.

The transfer from DV to 35mm took over another 6 months. We tested Melbourne, LA, Canada, Madras and Hyderabad. Finally, we went with Canada via Prime Focus. Paraminder Singh Chadda was the man on the job; another man without whom we would not have got the quality of print. It does not look any more like it has been shot on Digital. The DTS 5.1 sound happened in Madras (Real Image Media technologies Pvt. LTD) with Ajith Abraham George, Senthil Kumar,Tapas, Suri and H.Sridhar. The film looks bigger and richer because of DTS 5.1.

Nakul Kamte was the Supervising Sound Designer. He and his team came with their amazing clean up machine. Ram Sampath was the Music Director. His journey to get voices from Lucknow/Banares and other places (Zarina Begum, Chanulal Mishra) was reminiscent of Peter Gabriel's journey in 'Passion'.

Now that the film is over most importantly am I satisfied? Never! No filmmaker can ever be satisfied with the final product. There is always this feeling - I could have done that scene better or taken that shot this way…But the positive reviews the film has being garnering at the various film festivals it has been to, does help. The film was the official entry at the 55th Locarno International Film Festival 2002; the next entry is at the 25th Mill Valley Film Festival in California San Rafael in October later this year.

We have an album coming out with songs inspired by the music and the title track. All Thumri's, all songs of love and separation, All done in a modern contemporary manner. Thus the sound track is both truly Indian and international. We are hoping to release the film and music in India soon and of course looking for International buyers for the film.

For the time being though, its back to advertising. But the future holds another script and if the script needs DV then I will make my second movie on DV. However if it needs IMAX or 70mm then I shall make it on those formats. After all content dictates technology. And it shouldn't matter to the audience what the medium of capture is, what matters ultimately is the final film.