A Fun Chat

A Fun Chat

Abhishek Pathak’s directorial debut Ujda Chaman created a lot of buzz before it’s release, but the film got mixed reactions from the audience and critics. But while promoting the film post its release at ST office, the director along with actors Sunny Singh and Maanvi Gagroo, were quite confident about the noble concept of the project. 

Abhishek pointed out that nobody is perfect and how  every one has faced some sort body shaming at some point in their lives. “We have all been called mota, kala, chota and so on. But when we grew up and understood life, we started to realise why people said these things. We have also teased others by calling them names. When we watched the Kannada movie Ondu Motteya Kathe, we thought this is something we need to talk about,” said Abhishek. 

Sunny, who plays the protagonist in the film, said that his friends in college made fun of him because he would wear colourful clothes. “I never worried about my outfits matching, and I use to wear all kind of colours. My friends use to tell me, 'yeh kya rainbow bann ke agaya hai' but I used to laugh it off. I never let their comments affect me. Till the time you are keeping things light-hearted, everything is fine. But we shouldn't cross the line,” said the actor whose last film Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety was a huge hit.

He added that the team went to various look tests before finalising the one he portrayed in the film. “The prosthetic team has worked hard on the look. It was a different task for me because it would take two-and-a-half hours daily to work on my look,” he said, adding, “It's not only my physical look but we have worked everyday on the emotional arch of the character. We use do reading sessions to work on how Chaman would react in a particular scene. We used to work on inputs that others shared with us.” 
    
Abhishek said that though Ujda Chaman is a light-hearted film, it has a  complex story. “There are many internal complexities that the protagonist goes through. I love watching and making films that are relatable. When you talk about real stories and characters, it makes a lot of impact,” he added. 

The trio said that they had a great time working together as each one was supportive of the other. “We used to chill out a lot and joke around,” said Sunny. 

The film also stars Saurabh Shukla, Atul Kumar, Grusha Kapoor, Gagan Arora. 

Subjects like these were once considered a part of parallel or independent cinema, but filmmakers are now adopting these issues in mainstream storytelling. This is happening because of the digital platform, said Maanvi. “Web was telling stories which was about ‘us’. They were neither about mainstream heroism or rural India. It was about tier II and III cities, highlighting their issues. Those subjects got acceptance and unrealistic films were doing badly at the box-office. That's when content-driven films started getting all the attention from makers and audience,” she said, adding that the audience has also become intelligent because of the internet as they are exposed to different kind of content. 
 
To this Abhishek added, “In order to reach a larger audience, we have make these film look mainstream and add entertainment value. Cinema is going in the right direction, because we are choosing right subjects and making them mainstream.” 

Ujda Chaman was in legal battle with makers of Bala. Abhishek said that all the the pressure is now on the team of Bala, which is releasing on November 8. “We have made a good film,” he ended.  

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