How to throw a successful party

IN Media Practice | 19/01/2013

Cinephiles, world over, rejoice. The jury at the Oscars, after sifting through hundreds of possible choices, nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild in four major categories: Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. This American fantasy drama, which has already won many accolades and has widely been perceived as the critic’s pick of the year, was made within a scrimpy budget of $1.8 million. Its gilt-edged success avers that film-making should be driven by passion rather than profit.

Back home in India, a platoon of directors is basking in the glory of having successfully walked into Bollywood’s elite Rs 100-crore club that considers box-office collections the most obvious yardstick for  cinematic excellence. At the same time, , there is no dearth of film-makers in Bollywood who are driven, essentially, by passion for the craft of film-making.

Meet Tejas Padia, a director who, while being broke, managed to make a feature film and release it too. Lo! Ho Gai Party is not Tejas’ first venture. He made a mark with Ek Shukravar, a 16-minute short film based on the perturbing MMS scandal, which fetched him a letter of appreciation from the then President of India, A P J Abdul Kalaam. A newly inspired Tejas was convinced that Bollywood was his calling; he felt assured he would be welcomed with open arms. However, instead of the back-patting he expected, Tejas entered a period of struggle that seemed endless. He recalls, “I worked as an assistant director and a script-writer for a very long time. I struggled hard, it was a tough phase. Producers who liked my scripts demanded that I cast big stars which, for a fresher like me, was quite difficult. At times, the feeling of depression was overwhelming but I clung to my belief that films are not made with money but with passion.”

Producers, even though they loved his scripts, were not willing to shell out big bucks for his projects. Then, in 2010, Tejas had his epiphany and he came up with the idea of Lo! Ho Gayi Party, his first feature film. When he could not get a producer to back it, he decided to pull himself up by the bootstraps and take the plunge. The film, released this month, has received good reviews and is getting steady applause from audiences.

Set in Mumbai, the film chronicles the events that take place when the new owner of an un-new car throws a party to celebrate his acquisition; a few drinks on, the party begins to take tricky turns. There is an underlying message insightfully woven into the storyline. 

Tejas, writer as well as cinematographer of the film, had to struggle for nine-and-a-half months to put together a shooting schedule of 21 days. He had to fall back upon old friends to help him in his time of need. The star cast includes veteran actors Satish Kaushik and Manoj Joshi and TV actors Paresh Bhatt (whose acting skills deserve special mention), Lovina Bhatia, Manauv Vaswani and Anirrudh Dave, all of whom have given power-packed performances. Veterans Satish Kaushik and Manoj Joshi, initially a tad reluctant, later became greatly involved with the film.

To cut corners, the director of the film decided to shoot it with a PD-170 camera instead of the regular camera that is used to shoot films. A major sequence was shot in a friend’s house in Ghatkopar, a suburban area in Eastern Mumbai. 

In jesting mode, the opening credits proclaim God to be the producer of a film in which actors had to wear their own clothes and do each other’s make-up.  The only light source was the radiant sun. The film was released on Youtube and is free to watch. Tejas says, “I shot the film with a borrowed camera in locations that were voluntarily arranged by friends. The entire cast worked for free. If I wanted, I could have released the film in theatres but I did not want to cheat; people should be able to see a zero-budget movie without spending any money.”

Lo! Ho Gayi Party, is not only special because it is well-scripted and offers a good dose of comedy (Manoj Joshi at his hilarious best), it is special because it bucked the trend in an industry hungry only for good business.

If there is a message that Tejas wants to send out, it is this: “Producers should be approachable. Innumerable producers gave me their contact numbers but not an appointment and those who gave me an appointment were not available to meet me. I got lucky and made a film. What about thousands like me who are rife with ideas but who never get a chance to showcase their talent? These people leave Mumbai disheartened and disillusioned and that is one of the saddest things.”