Director Payal says she is not someone who thinks about the end result Kapadia whose film “We all imagine ourselves as light” became the first Indian film to win the Grand Prix Award Cannes And now it may well make its way OscarsThe film is being released in Kerala on Saturday and later in the rest of India by the actor-producer. rana daggubatiIt has been submitted by ‘Spirit Media’ to the Film Federation of India (FFI), which decides which film will represent India in the International Feature Film category at the Oscars. The announcement is likely to be made next week.
When asked what would happen next if the film is not selected as India’s entry for the Academy Awards, Daggubati told PTI, “We will try our best.”
After this it can be sent for consideration in the general categories.
Though the wait continues, Kapadia said she is just going with the flow and enjoying each step.
“I am not someone who is always thinking about the end result. It is always a process. Making this film has been a long process, raising funds was a process, meeting people was a process and this is also part of the process, so we have to go with it. Let’s see how it goes, we hope,” Kapadia told PTI.
Daggubati, who has the rights to distribute the film in both Malayalam and Hindi, praised Kapadia, calling her a “pure filmmaker” with no marketing pretensions.
He said that “All We Imagine as Light” has earned the audience’s love purely on the basis of merit.
He said, “We are the corrupt people who get into the publicity, the strategy, the influence… all of that is done by us. So, they have made a film very purely and the place it has reached till now is completely based on merit. It is not like we said for ‘Baahubali’ or ‘RRR’, ‘Hey, you know, this is the strategy we will adopt at the Oscars’. This is not that kind of film, it will go on a very different journey, and I think it is important for India to see different kinds of journeys.”
The film is the story of Prabha (Kusruti), a Mumbai nurse whose life turns upside down when she receives a rice cooker from her estranged husband. Divya Prabha plays Anu, her roommate and colleague who is struggling to find a secluded place in the city to spend time with her boyfriend. Prabha’s best friend Parvati (Kadam), a widow, is thrown out of her house by property developers.
Kapadia, an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), thanked the audience and people from the film industry who showed immense support for the film.
She said, “I don’t want to name any one person because a lot of people sent me messages. Karan Johar said very good things about the film in an interview, Javed Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap were very supportive.”
Initially he had created a social media profile to read people’s comments about the film, but now he has made it private.
The filmmaker, also known for films such as “A Night of Knowing Nothing” and “Afternoon Clouds”, said Daggubati’s participation in his film shows why it is important for mainstream filmmakers to support independent cinema.
“We need this kind of interaction between mainstream and independent filmmakers. We need the support of the larger industry. It’s great that this collaboration is happening and it’s true with many other small independent filmmakers as well that we get support from the mainstream. So, this is a way for us to make films as well.”
Daggubati said he came to know about the film from his producing partner Pratiksha Rao, which he initially thought was an English film.
He said, “Payal is a fantastic filmmaker, the way she has depicted life is amazing. I have not seen any Indian film doing this in so much detail.”
He said, “In the last few years, at least in South India, you have been seeing a lot of films that were close to India in that sense but this film took it to a different level. The actors were amazing, I was amazed at how good they were and I started realising how bad I was at doing cinema in the process.”
The film, titled “Prabhaya Ninachthalam” in Malayalam, will hit limited screens in Kerala on Saturday and will be released subsequently in all major cities in India.
Daggubati said the decision to release the film first in Kerala was taken due to the fact that the lead actors, Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha, are from the state.
Throwing light on the unique release pattern, he said, “What often happens in India is that whether it is a mainstream film or an art house, they follow the same release pattern, which is not usually the case in the West.
“This kind of cinema needs to be heard about, you need enough people knowing about it and speaking about it, because in the commercial world what you’re competing with are big action films or spectacle films.”
Kapadia said she was most happy that people would “buy tickets” to watch her film in theatres.
When asked what would happen next if the film is not selected as India’s entry for the Academy Awards, Daggubati told PTI, “We will try our best.”
After this it can be sent for consideration in the general categories.
Though the wait continues, Kapadia said she is just going with the flow and enjoying each step.
“I am not someone who is always thinking about the end result. It is always a process. Making this film has been a long process, raising funds was a process, meeting people was a process and this is also part of the process, so we have to go with it. Let’s see how it goes, we hope,” Kapadia told PTI.
Daggubati, who has the rights to distribute the film in both Malayalam and Hindi, praised Kapadia, calling her a “pure filmmaker” with no marketing pretensions.
He said that “All We Imagine as Light” has earned the audience’s love purely on the basis of merit.
He said, “We are the corrupt people who get into the publicity, the strategy, the influence… all of that is done by us. So, they have made a film very purely and the place it has reached till now is completely based on merit. It is not like we said for ‘Baahubali’ or ‘RRR’, ‘Hey, you know, this is the strategy we will adopt at the Oscars’. This is not that kind of film, it will go on a very different journey, and I think it is important for India to see different kinds of journeys.”
The film is the story of Prabha (Kusruti), a Mumbai nurse whose life turns upside down when she receives a rice cooker from her estranged husband. Divya Prabha plays Anu, her roommate and colleague who is struggling to find a secluded place in the city to spend time with her boyfriend. Prabha’s best friend Parvati (Kadam), a widow, is thrown out of her house by property developers.
Kapadia, an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), thanked the audience and people from the film industry who showed immense support for the film.
She said, “I don’t want to name any one person because a lot of people sent me messages. Karan Johar said very good things about the film in an interview, Javed Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap were very supportive.”
Initially he had created a social media profile to read people’s comments about the film, but now he has made it private.
The filmmaker, also known for films such as “A Night of Knowing Nothing” and “Afternoon Clouds”, said Daggubati’s participation in his film shows why it is important for mainstream filmmakers to support independent cinema.
“We need this kind of interaction between mainstream and independent filmmakers. We need the support of the larger industry. It’s great that this collaboration is happening and it’s true with many other small independent filmmakers as well that we get support from the mainstream. So, this is a way for us to make films as well.”
Daggubati said he came to know about the film from his producing partner Pratiksha Rao, which he initially thought was an English film.
He said, “Payal is a fantastic filmmaker, the way she has depicted life is amazing. I have not seen any Indian film doing this in so much detail.”
He said, “In the last few years, at least in South India, you have been seeing a lot of films that were close to India in that sense but this film took it to a different level. The actors were amazing, I was amazed at how good they were and I started realising how bad I was at doing cinema in the process.”
The film, titled “Prabhaya Ninachthalam” in Malayalam, will hit limited screens in Kerala on Saturday and will be released subsequently in all major cities in India.
Daggubati said the decision to release the film first in Kerala was taken due to the fact that the lead actors, Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha, are from the state.
Throwing light on the unique release pattern, he said, “What often happens in India is that whether it is a mainstream film or an art house, they follow the same release pattern, which is not usually the case in the West.
“This kind of cinema needs to be heard about, you need enough people knowing about it and speaking about it, because in the commercial world what you’re competing with are big action films or spectacle films.”
Kapadia said she was most happy that people would “buy tickets” to watch her film in theatres.
Patralekhaa recalls her audition days, working with Vijay Varma for IC 814 and husband-critic Rajkummar Rao
“All We Imagine as Light” is an Indo-French co-production between France’s Petit Chaos and India’s Chalk & Cheese Films, and Ranvir Das (‘Another Birth’), who also served as the cinematographer on the film, also serves as the Indian producer on the film.
