In conversation with the cast and crew of 'Sundar'

dna: So Cardiff and Chicago beckon?
Rohan Kanawade (RK, filmmaker): (Laughs) Well it's still early to start reacting. The news is only sinking in. It's a great honour for all of us who believed in this project and gave it our best.
Sanyogeeta Bhave (SB plays protagonist Jayoo's mom): I knew Sundar was destined for great things ever since Rohan narrated the script to me. It also won the audience choice award at the Chennai Rainbow Film Festival 2015.
Yogendra Mule (YM plays protagonist Jayoo): I am really proud that this film is getting such recognition. Though I've been part of the production hands on films and serials before, this was my first outing on the screen. When I first told friends at Kashish 2014 that I want to be on the screen, many laughed behind my back. Look who's laughing now...

dna: I believe there were hiccups at that stage too...
RK: Oh don't ask me... I had my heart-in-my-mouth as the last date for sending nominations came closer. We'd figured out everything else but simply didn't have the money to send as nomination entry fee. It's great that the Humsafar Trust stepped in to help.
Punit Reddy (PR, DOP): Ever year, Kashish festival nominates a film that wins the Indian Narrative Short, or the Riyad Wadia Award, to Iris Prize Festival.
YM: And yes, you can see how we're all trying our best to be equanimous (laughs). Being nominated for the world's largest LGBT short film prize of £30,000 is not even affecting us (the whole group cracks up)!
PR: On a serious note, we know that this will be an international competition and anything can happen. The fact that our effort will be showcased itself is a great feeling.

dna: How did the idea for Sundar come about?
RK: Near the chawl that my parents live in, we have a huge garba during Navratri. There was a boy, who would come there to dance. He'd get ragged and laughed at for what the onlookers thought was a feminine style of dancing and behaviour. Some bullies would hold him back and force him to dance for them so that they could jeer and laugh more. It had left a really big impact on my mind. I began penning this down as a short story about 4-5 years ago.

dna: Did you intentionally write it visually to begin with?
RK: I don't think so. My friends pointed this out and prompted me to change the story into a script. That took a long time. I have written and made films without any training, hence each step takes that much more time. I didn't want too many characters and dialogues. The atmosphere, ambience, sound and music had to tell the story. And finding funds to make the film, took a really long time too. We had to crowd-source.

dna: Sanyogita and Yogendra, did you agree to being cast for the roles as soon as you were approached?
SB: The narration did it for me. I had no second thoughts at all. The spirit of what the film is saying and the way it is going about doing that, gripped me...
RK: She is such a busy actor caught with her daily soaps and other projects... yet she agreed to work on my film. This, despite me not paying her. Finding someone to play Jayoo was tough. Some had suggested Yogendra's name since he was part of the team but I couldn't place him in that role in my head.
YM: I was just a location producer for the film to begin with. Rohan had found another actor. We went to this location in Borivali east a day before the shoot was to start and were watching the garba when I learnt from Rohan that the lead actor had ditched. Oblivious to what was happening, friends in the neighbourhood kept asking me to join the dancing. Since I enjoy it, I began dancing with gusto.
RK: One look at his moves, and I knew I'd found Jayoo. Only when he said he had no qualms draping a sari for the final scene, I was relieved that the project wasn't going to fall through.

dna: The music and the black-and-white cinematography too add to the narrative.
Varun Likhate (music composer): Once Rohan explained he was shooting with sync sound, I knew the music had to naturally be there and supplanted on the timeline at the edit. We have chosen traditional tracks popular at garbas that play in the background with a feel that they can be heard inside Jayoo's home from the ground outside.
RK: In keeping with how people shun and ridicule Jayoo, the film had to be black-and-white. In the end, when he comes to terms with his inner beauty and accepts who he is without giving a damn for the world is when I wanted just his sari to be in colour. But doing that would have been frightfully expensive, so we shot those scenes entirely in colour instead.

(Sundar will be screened at National College, Bandra at 4pm today. The event is free)