The making of Nakoshi - a Short film by Ashwamedh Kalamanch

  The making of 'Nakoshi' - 

a short film by Ashwamedh Kalamanch

      14th November 2011, on Children's day (बालदिन), there was this News on many News  Channels that 222 girls named Nakoshi/ Nakoshia/ Nakusha/ Nirasha were renamed by local health care department officers of Satara, Maharashtra in one social program. 'Nakoshi' means 'Unwanted' girl. It's really sad that in India thousands of girls are named as Nakoshi/Nakusha by their parents. Let me tell you; not only poor illiterate parents but also rich and well-educated people do this thing. The reason is that they feel 'girls' are a burden on them and a big liability. Poor people feel that girls will not become their support in their old age as they will go to their husband's home after marriage and hence they do not educate these girls. Mostly those who already have 2-3 girl-children name their next girl as Nakoshi/Nakusha. 

 

        Based on this News, I decided to make a Marathi short-film 'Nakoshi'. I developed a concept further and wrote the script which will be as long as 30 min. film. But 15 min. is the maximum accepted length of short-films and 7-10 min. is considered an ideal length. I decided to shoot each and everything first and then edit it twice, one full-length film for YouTube and second below 15 min. short-film to submit to short film festivals. When I explained the entire script to my team for the first time; everyone was completely numb and their eyes were filled with tears. I know my concepts are always good, but due to financial constraints, we do a lot of compromise with script and sets which makes our final product very mediocre. But I feel our limitations makes our work more challenging which in turn make us think more creatively. 

       Ashwamedh Kalamanch's journey is slow but steady. With Nakoshi, we are the first time trying to make some improvement in the 'art direction' area of short-film making. The best part is we don't have any person directly/indirectly associated with film making field, but we dare to learn every aspect of short-film making by watching other's work and using some tutorials available on YouTube.We don't have any Godfather or any guide. We are the modern 'Eklavya' who learn maximum things out of curiosity. May it be Editing or may it be Camera Angles. 

         

        Nakoshi's shooting started on 11.11.11. Friday at Abhijeet Sakpal's house in Nalasopara. We reached to Nalasopara in the evening to shoot Nakoshi's birth scene. As per script, we had shown that Nakoshi's father is a construction worker in Mumbai and he lives in one of the under-construction building's terrace where he is working currently. He already has 3 daughters and wants a boy child. So the scene starts in Hospital corridor where he is waiting eagerly for his wife's delivery. He has his 3 daughters with him and one of his relative. 

 

                     Nakoshi's father is played by Anant Chavan, the only person in our group who  had done some commercial Marathi Theater with likes of Nirmiti Sawant, Satish Tare, Bhushan Kadu under the direction of eminent Marathi Director Purushottam Berde. His nephew Ashish Chavan is playing his relative's role. In this hospital scene, we needed to establish that the character Gangaram Mahadik played by Anant already has 3 daughters, that's the only reason we chose to shoot this scene at Abhijeet's house because he has two daughters Priyanka and Arya. It's the only scene where we have shown Gangaram's other daughters.Rest of the short-film revolves around Nakoshi and her father's relationship. Abhijeet's neighbours got excited to see us shooting in their building; so many children came to his house to see Arya and Piyu acting. We chose one more girl from Piyu's friends to show as the eldest daughter of Gangaram. The scene was shot in a lot of noise yet as there was no dialogue involved and only background music, we went ahead to shoot it in the same crowd. We finished the entire scene that day till 10:00 p.m. in the night and fixed our next schedule on 13 th Nov. Sunday. 

       Short-film making is not a rocket science. Short films are like projects for media students to learn the basics of film making. The process is real fun. Not only students of film line or mass media make short films, many amateur video makers make shorts. In the last few years, It has been seen that in every short-film festivals there are more than 300 entries. That itself shows that there are many such groups involved in short film making just because of the 'filmy kida' inside them. Professional short film maker spend Rs.1 - 1.5 lakhs in making short films while amateur groups do the same thing in 5-10K. College students spend even less than this as they have large groups and generally they get actors, directors, editors among them itself. To shoot with professional camera Rs.6K has to be spend per day as a camera rent; so many amateur short-film makers use digi-cams or handycams to shoot their videos and some even use their mobiles (with good MegaPixel) too. Irrespective of what you are using for shooting ultimately what matters is how your work has been received by audiences. Some professional short film makers spend a lot of their budget in hiring faces from commercials or supporting actors/junior actors from main stream cinema but they end up making a mediocre product. Even though their short-films are well made technically; the concept of the short films itself is not so appealing to the viewers. Hence some short film makers straightaway copy short films of hollywood. Yes, even short-films concepts are stolen nowdays. YouTube is a great platform for creative thieves ;)

 

 Nakoshi's shooting is complete now and promos are released one by one which are circulating on Facebook. Most of the film is shot indoors. The art direction is done by Ashish Chavan and Abhijeet Sakpal. The set of hospital room looks real. The saline bottles, blue plain partition, the iron hospital like cot, the white bedsheet, green cushion and a black blanket gives you the exact feelings of the hospital. We created this set in my bedroom.

And the other set of the 'temporary house' of a construction worker which we created on our terrace itself is equally convincing. Thanks to Mr. Ashish Chavan who not only done Art direction but also played a small role of Nakoshi's Mama (Maternal Uncle) in this short film. But above all, he showed his brilliance in the make-up of Anant Chavan using whatever we had powder, kajal, toothpaste etc. Neha played Anant's wife's role in this short film and had 3-4 scenes; we arranged the second schedule exclusively to complete all her scenes. It's her first ever short film and she did an excellent job. Nakoshi's role has been done by Bhargavi Chavan (Kid Nakoshi) and Rupali More ( Grown-up Nakoshi). 

           Bhargavi is really a cute little shy girl of Anant Chavan. As a father, she also has symptoms of 'Acting Kida'. She is just in 1st standard but faces the camera with confidence. Rupali's role is crucial in this short film as she is performing the title role. Anant and Rupali have done some wonderful emotional scenes between father and daughter. Apart from these lead actors; Mithun Patekar, Jitendra Patel, Ashish Chavan, Abhijeet Sakpal, Shailesh More and me, we have done some small roles. Ofcourse, I was busy with direction and camera yet wanted to be part of this wonderful story; so I played the role of Nakoshi's kind hearted teacher. Editing part of Nakoshi will start soon. Hopefully, you all will like it. 

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