The bond that we share with our siblings is a great source of strength for most of us, especially when we face testing times. Marathi film Khari Biscuit captures this unconditional love that siblings share.
During their visit to Sakal Times office recently, we had an engaging time chatting with director Sanjay Jadhav, actors Vedashree Khadilkar (who plays visually impaired Khari), Adarsh Kadam (Biscuit), Zee Studios Business Head Mangesh Kulkarni, and Content Head Ashwin Patil.
Sanjay, a well-known director and cinematographer in Marathi industry, is known for making mass entertainers like Duniyadari, Guru and Ringa Ringa. But Khari Biscuit is different from the films he has made in the past, he says. Speaking about the inspiration behind the story, he says, “Around six years back, I was shooting in Goa and an assistant director mentioned a line, saying, ‘There’s a visually impaired girl, who wishes to see the World Cup.’ I liked the idea and started to develop the story around it. We were looking for a title that is familiar to Mumbai slums and that’s when one of my associates came up with Khari Biscuit. The story is about how Biscuit makes Khari’s every wish come true. The film is very soulful unlike the ones I have made in the past.”
Sanjay has earlier worked with established actors, so how was it working with child actors? “While working with established actors, there is some amount of give and take of suggestions as they think like the characters while makers think from the story’s point of view. So both are ultimately responsible for the outcome. But while working with kids, you are scared and responsible at the same time. Everything happens the way the director wants and suggests, so the responsibility is on the director only,” he points out.
The casting process was elaborate, he says. “Biscuit is a street smart boy given that he is from Mumbai slums. At the same time, he is lovable. We had conducted workshops for kids and saw that Adarsh had good energy among them. For Khari, we shortlisted nearly 350 girls and found Vedashree to be the most suitable. We consulted an eye specialist and created lenses for her so that she could understand how visually impaired girls behave. It was important to take her and her parents into confidence for this.
We got meetings done between her parents and the eye specialist and only after that, Vedashree practised wearing those lenses for a few minutes every day for three and a half months.”
There are bound to be many memorable moments of shooting such an emotional film. Sanjay agrees ad says, “There’s an important sequence wherein Khari asks Biscuit, ‘Did you lie to me because I can’t see?’ That moment still leaves me emotional. The scene was shot with no retakes.”
When asked what kind of preparation did the children do for their roles, Adarsh says, “We used to take half day from school and attend workshops. Yogesh Phulphagar, associate director of the film, helped in picking up the nuances of the character. He helped us learn our dialogues too.”
Phulpagar would help Vedashree when she wore lenses as it used to hurt her sometimes, she adds.
Zee Studios is backing the movie. Speaking about their strategy, Mangesh Kulkarni says, “We always try to get variety along with ensuring soulful and touching content, be it a biopic or a comedy. After the soulful Khari Biscuit, we are working on a political thriller and a comedy next. The only thing we keep in mind is that we don’t immediately repeat what we have done in the past. As far as the number of films per year is concerned, people expect good films from us. We filter 150 stories before getting five to the audience.”
Are Marathi films constantly getting good response at the box office, we ask Kulkarni. “The response for Marathi films is good now as the content is also quite engaging. And the good thing is that Marathi audiences are very emotional and intellectual at the same time,” he points out.
Ashwin Patil adds that along with bringing new content, they also bring new talents on board. How does he filter the content as a content head? “I feel when we listen to a script, it is important to understand if the audience will like it or not. Every story has some good elements in it and sometimes it’s a challenge to get all the elements and bring it to the audience, given that we have a diverse audience. Also, it’s the writer who plays a vital role in getting the content, more than us,” he concludes.
