"We hope that our film and the newcomers debuting in it will get a chance," says Tanmaya Shekhar, the first-time director of "Nukkad Naatak," an independent film that he created with the support of his family, friends, and complete strangers.
This film explores the "two Indias" through Shekhar's experience of witnessing the stark contrast between elite campus life and the poverty of neighboring slums. The film features actors Molshri and Shivang Rajpal.
Shekhar says, "We have worked very hard to make this film. We did everything ourselves. Now, at this stage, the industry support we receive will be very helpful. We hope you give this film a chance. We hope you give us a chance. We hope everyone who worked on the film gets a chance."
Shekhar, who studied at IIT Kanpur and then pursued filmmaking, says that after spending six years on Hollywood film sets like "The Plot Against America," "Love Life," and "Never Rarely Sometimes Always," he returned to India in 2022 with the story of "Nukkad Naatak."
"When I went home four years ago during Diwali, I saw my mom teaching in a slum. It was shocking for me because I grew up on an IIT campus, my dad was an IIT professor, and I studied at IIT. This slum was four kilometers away."
"It was a moment of two Indias within one India: on one hand, you have an elite engineering college, and right next to it, you have a slum, and their lives don't intersect, the people from the slums don't go there, and vice versa."
Named after the popular street theatre form, "Nukkad Naatak," the title, according to the debutante director, aims to highlight the education of underprivileged children and the challenges faced by LGBTQ individuals in conservative societies.
Shekhar says, "The idea of a 'Nukkad Natak' is that you are taking something topical and going straight to the people. You are performing on the streets so that you can increase social awareness and social consciousness."
Shekhar says that independent films like Neeraj Ghaywan's "Masaan" and "Udaan," directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, served as inspiration in terms of the visual aesthetics of filming, and the 2019 movie "And Then We Danced" also influenced their style.
Molshri, who has acted in various plays and appeared in a supporting role in Huma Qureshi's "Bayaan," says that even though they faced multiple challenges while filming the movie, she cherishes every moment of it.
"This journey that I am undertaking now, I never thought my life experience would be like this. I'm telling people about my film, and I'm standing with my poster. This is also about character building. I have changed for the better."
Shekhar says that he approached every director and producer in Bollywood, sent emails and letters, including to independent cinema champions like Kiran Rao, Anurag Kashyap, and Vikramaditya Motwane, but nothing worked out.
"Giving up" is not in our DNA, Shekhar says, adding that even though he was clueless about the business of filmmaking, the only option he had was to make it on his own.
"We tried reaching out to people for six to seven months, and then we realized that we would have to release our own film, and that was a hard moment. It seemed like a crazy moment," he says, adding that he turned to his seniors in IIT, who gave him either Rs. 1 or 2 lakh and took a loan of Rs. 1 crore to make and release "Nukkad Naatak."
One of the biggest moral boosts came from a chance encounter with director Imtiaz Ali. After being turned away by his security guard multiple times, Shekhar and Molshri finally caught Ali as he was entering his office.
"We had a 10-second window; we gave him the letter and told him a little about the film," Molshri says.
To their surprise, Ali watched the film and liked it, and even filmed a promotional reel, "How to Enter Bollywood," with the duo and personally called OTT platforms on their behalf.
However, the industry's obsession with "known actors" turned out to be a hurdle.
"We got a call from the OTT platform, and they asked us about the cast. We told them about it, and they hung up. Right now, it's the worst time in the industry, everything has become tight," Shekhar says. He adds that Ali called a few theatre chains, and he has been very helpful.
Shekhar says that advance-booking for "Nukkad Naatak" has opened in a few theaters in India.
While filming for the film in Dhanbad, the 15-member crew stayed at his parent's house. His grandmother and mother were managing catering.
"It was the first time that they were doing this. If lunch was ready at 12 but the shooting was delayed until 3 PM, my mom would be like, 'Ab phir se garam karo khana' (Now, reheat the food again), or sometimes we would be like, we need lunch at 10 AM," the director says, adding that his mother would sometimes scold the crew for messing up the house.
"A crew member who was 40-plus came to me saying, 'I didn't come here to be scolded by someone's mother'," he says, adding, "It was such a homely atmosphere."
The film is set to release in theaters on February 27, and the "biggest test" for Shekhar is to bring people to cinema halls.
"Cinepolis saw the trailer. Our views are not as big as big films, but our likes are more, even on BookMyShow. About 20,000 people have marked 'I'm interested' in the movie, which is a very high number. It is all organic. Now, whether people will come to the theater or not, no one knows. We will have to wait till the 27th. We've done our best," Shekhar says.
