Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Photo K. Ramesh Babu

Meaningful venture Sameer Hanchate

Young film-maker Sameer Hanchate loves the curiosity but is quick to clarify, “My film, Gafla, is a fictionalised version of the scam. We are not hinting at real personalities.”

The film has won Sameer the best debut director award at the RACE-V. Shantaram awards, and was Peter Bradshaw’s top 10 pick at the London Film Festival 2006, among other accolades.

Sameer was an outsider to the stock markets and the bulls and bears before making the film. “Once I decided on telling something about the scam, I decided to learn about the industry. I met investors, stock brokers and financial experts to know how things work. In the early 90s, there has been a lot of reporting – critical and scientific ones – on the scam. But most of it was something only the economists could completely understand. For a layman like me, it was a puzzle. I wanted to present the human story, about people who were involved and what happened to them after the scam,” he explains.

Once the script was in place, the toughest task was to find actors. “Leading actors are, obviously, sceptical to work with a rank newcomer. They wouldn’t know if the film will be completed, executed well and marketed well. So I had to settle for lesser known actors,” he says.

The production, too, was easier said than done. “I come from a middle class family. I raised funds through friends and my father mortgaged a house,” he says. Have the results been rewarding? “Commercially not much, because we couldn’t market the film well. So it had a small scale theatrical release. On the brighter side, the film has generated interest in many film festivals,” he reveals.

From being a student of architecture, Sameer was drawn to films and pursued a film course in New York, returned to assist Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Subhash Ghai before branching out on his own. “It’s not easy when you are not from a film family. I am drawn to films and am hopeful of making some good ones,” he concludes.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail