‘THE GOOD ROAD’ has failed to make
India’s official entry in the Oscars 2014 nominations list in the Best Foreign
Picture Category, but Ajita Suchitra Veera’s ‘BALLAD OF RUSTOM’ is shortlisted for
Oscars 2014 in Best Picture Contention from 3000 entries worldwide. Ajita
Suchitra Veera is writer, producer and director of the film. She is on a
mission to introduce her film to the Indian audiences.
What is BAALAD OF RUSTOM?
BALLAD OF RUSTOM is a poetic 115
minutes tale of a nondescript telephone repairer Rustom who has knack for
scientific experiments. The film was fully shot
on KODAK VISION3 Color Negative Films 5207 - 250D and Vision 3 5219 -
500T on ARRI 535B on cinemascope format by Shanti Bhushan Roy
Cinematographer with live sync-sound. It was an aesthetic and artistic decision
by me on film and create a visually different scheme for the movie. The
negative went through a processing technique called bleach bypass, to
create a unique look. I took 4 years to complete the film with my particular
choice of location and lighting. The cast was carefully selected to lend
authenticity to the characters. The powerful and evocative score was evolved over
2 years, with extensive collaboration between me and composer Andrew T Mackay.
What is story of Rustom?
Rustom
is a silent character. He is a young imaginative man working without any great
aspirations, or ambition in a small government office, in a remote township in
India, leads a wandering life and falls in love with young painter and meets
strangers on his journey and shares his small dreams with his friend and
travels into his dream world in this beautiful and magical countryside, which
is slowly disappearing. You can say, the film is about imagination, dreams of
passion for life, love, hope, despair & conflicting philosophies of a few
people in a countryside township in India.
You have used a technique called ‘Bleached By Pass’, Can you
enlighten about it?
‘Bleach By Pass is a technique where
you retain the silver on the negative in color film, so that you have an
additional Black and white layer over the color image. This produces a desiderated
image with high contrast and gain which creates very special look. I was
particular about this desaturated color palette for my film to create the
surreal atmosphere of Rustom’s dream world of technology, nature and his own
subconscious.
Did you face any challenges during the making of film?
The film is constructed in a very
different way, so obviously it not easy making a film which is highly visual,
philosophical and not a strict narrative yet. It’s a deeply philosophical film
of India. Me and my crew shot it at Coorg in Karnataka. There were several
challenges of raising funds, shooting in right locations and finding right
cast. But I love challenges.
What is your commercials distribution aspect for the BALLAD
OF RUSTOM?
The
films story is very near to me. When you watch sure you will get it near with
you. I have made a good film and always I think a good film will do good
business, I have so far financed my own film but I now want to approach big
studios like Disney, Sony classic, Fox Searchlight , UTV, TV18 or Eros to
become the release partners. I want to show my film to all Indians.
·
Shaami M.
Irfan
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