'Bubble Gum' is no kids film

If the promos have kept you wondering, then the truth is that Bubble Gum is no kids film, but one on childhood — a phase that every adult is reminiscent of at some time. And filmmaker Sanjivan Lal is sure that his debut film will strike a chord across audiences.

“As adults or parents, we’ve all gone back to our childhood. Bubble Gum deals with a very crucial phase — when one is neither considered a child nor an adult,” states Sanjivan. Set in the 80s in Jamshedpur, there’s a feel good factor about the film.

“Bubble Gum wasn’t an overnight idea. I had some scripts ready but no known actor wanted to be a part of it. Frustrated, I wrote a script that was high on content and would emotionally reach out to everyone,” Sanjivan recollects, adding, “Like my protagonist, I too have gone through an academically critical phase, when I was ready to go all out for the girl I liked. Such real life incidents became my fictional plot.”

Of course, the main hiccup was to get someone to back the idea. “Nobody wants to back films with children in it. Meanwhile, NFDC was on the lookout for some scripts they wanted to co-produce — mine was the only one out of the 65 scripts that they chose. But by the time I was ready to start shooting, their policy had changed,” rues the filmmaker.

Quiz Sanjivan on the title and he explains, “My film is about that age when children are the most malleable — quite like a bubble gum, if blown beyond a point, they can get messy too.” Bubble Gum doesn’t boast of a star cast and the teenagers are new faces.

“We had a countrywide audition to get kids with distinct characteristics since Jamshedpur is a place with a mixed population,” he informs.

Co-incidentally, his lead pair, Delzad Hiwale and Apoorva Arora, was recently seen in a mobile phone advertisement. “We hadn’t anticipated this. Initially, I was horrified to learn that the same casting director who had worked on the film, had suggested them for the ad, but the ad was getting popular and people were connecting to it — that’s good news,” he signs off.