{"id":1204,"date":"2014-12-14T11:22:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T11:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2015-05-06T06:20:31","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T06:20:31","slug":"chauranga-director-bikas-mishra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/chauranga-director-bikas-mishra\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Consider Myself A Writer First’: Chauranga Director Bikas Mishra"},"content":{"rendered":"

All pictures used in this interview are courtesy Bikas Mishra and Chauranga (Anticlock Films)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chauranga\"

Chauranga tells the story of class oppression in rural India.<\/p><\/div>\n

From a childhood spent in the village in Hazaribagh district to becoming a filmmaker whose directorial debut Chauranga<\/em> (Four Colours)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0walked away with the Golden Gateway of India award for best film in India Gold section at the Mumbai Film Festival 2014<\/strong> this year, it\u2019s been quite a journey for Bikas Mishra<\/strong>. Moving from one milestone to the other, Chauranga<\/em> is today being screened at the 11th Dubai International Film Festival under the Cinema of the World section.<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Bikas Mishra and produced by Anticlock Films, Chauranga <\/em>stars Sanjay Suri, Tannishtha Chatterjee<\/a>, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Arpita Chatterjee, Soham Maitra, Riddhi Sen, Ena Saha, Anshuman Jha, Swatilekha Sengupta and Delzad Hiwale.<\/p>\n

Chauranga<\/em>, a fictional account of six days in a dark corner of India, tells the story of class oppression in rural India. Santu wants to go to school like his older brother Bajarangi. When Bajarangi returns from boarding school on holiday, he exposes the 14-year-old Santu to the dreams of city life. But Santu\u2019s destiny was pre-written in a village that\u2019s steeped deep in caste-hierarchy and debauchery. His infatuation for an older girl of a higher caste makes him persuade his older brother to write a love letter.<\/p>\n

Setting precedents in crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chauranga<\/em>‘s journey of success began right from the scripting stage.\u00a0The Chauranga<\/em> project was part of \u00a0NFDC Screenwriters\u2019 Lab at Locarno Film Festival 2010 and ScriptStation at Berlin Talent Campus. It won \u201cIncredible India\u201d Award<\/strong> for the best project at the co-production of NFDC FIlm Bazar, Goa 2011 and also received Script and Project Development Funding from\u00a0Goteborg\u00a0International Film Festival<\/strong>, Sweden. It was also invited for Paris Project<\/strong>, the co-production market of Paris International Film Festival 2012.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s production foundation is based on an interesting scheme of crowd sourcing. According to Bikas, \u201cChauranga<\/em> has in its credit list three producers from two companies, 10 co-producers from six companies and 25 co-owners who contributed during our crowd-funding campaign<\/strong>.\u201d Chauranga<\/em>\u00a0also crowd-sourced talent<\/strong>. Its publicity designer was chosen by an open contest on social media website Facebook. Onir\u2019s Anticlock films also ran a hunt for background score designer on Facebook and sample tracks were uploaded for public voting.<\/p>\n

For the unassuming, scholarly Bikas, who is also the founder-editor of Dearcinema.com<\/em><\/a>, the hugely popular online film journal, it is the realization of a dream which he wove in childhood, when he watched films in a projector room in a local cinema, with a growing love for the moving images on the screen.<\/p>\n

\"Sanjay

Sanjay Suri, Bikas Mishra, Soham Maitra and Onir at the Mumbai Film Festival 2014<\/p><\/div>\n

In an interview to Learning and Creativity<\/em>, Bikas Mishra recalls his childhood fascination which he gradually started giving a definite shape and direction during college. Thus began a journey of learning, discovering, studying and writing cinema, of understanding the art of direction and scripting and all the nitty-gritty that goes into the making of a film. Picking up momentum brick by brick, Bikas ultimately stepped into making his own film \u2013 a film he has conceived, written, visualized and directed.<\/p>\n

\"Arpita

Bikas Mishra directing Arpita Chatterjee in Chauranga<\/p><\/div>\n

L&C: Did you ever dream of reaching this level when you watched films from a projector room in a local cinema as a child? What had you dreamt of then and how much of that dream do you think you\u2019ve realized?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bikas:<\/strong> It look me some time to understand what I dreamed about. I was bewitched by cinema. But the eighties and nineties when I was growing up wasn\u2019t the best time for popular Hindi cinema and I had no access to anything else, so I was fairly confused. I loved and loathed cinema.<\/p>\n

I got clarity on what I liked only when I moved to Jamshedpur and started watching films at a film society called \u201cCelluloid Chapter\u201d. This film society opened my world to the kind of cinema, I loved.<\/p>\n

L&C:<\/em><\/strong> Before we talk about Chauranga, I am intrigued by your journey towards reaching where you are today. If I remember correctly, you had said you received your mass comm training in Jamia. What would you say equipped you to dare to venture into film direction?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Bikas: <\/strong>As part of my Master\u2019s degree, I studied filmmaking formally, so I\u2019m formally trained as a filmmaker. However, the institute where I studied was meant for documentary filmmakers. I didn\u2019t let it become a hindrance and made a short fiction for my degree film\u00a0(Sweetheart in the Cupboard)<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

L&C:<\/em><\/strong> Watching films in film societies, bringing up Dearcinema, nurturing, fostering, expanding it to become the most respected Indian film journal online \u2013 did these exposures help you to develop the skills for directing a feature film? Or was it watching other filmmakers shoot or working with film units gave you a hands-on experience? One doesn\u2019t become a filmmaker overnight, even if you receive formal training. Tell us about how you trained or learned the craft.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Soham

Soham Maitra and Riddhi Sen on the Sets of Chauranga at Bolpur Santiniketan<\/p><\/div>\n

Bikas:<\/strong> As Fellini says it, the only way to learn filmmaking is to make films. I made short films to keep myself abreast with filmmaking. Ironically, I never visited film sets. I can remember only visiting two film sets just for few hours.<\/p>\n

I think the biggest challenge is to write a script and I consider myself a writer first. I struggled a lot with writing. Thankfully, formal mentoring platform exists for new writers. Once the script was in place, things got easier.<\/p>\n

L&C: We\u2019ve had filmmakers draw inspiration from real life incidents to turn them into introspective cinema that probes, analyses and comments. Several of Tapan Sinha\u2019s films for instance are based on real life incidents. Tell us about how challenging it is to make a real incident act as a spark towards exploring a bigger reality.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bikas: <\/strong>I always had the bigger reality in mind and wanted to make a film on it. The challenge was to make an engaging tale out of the bigger reality. The real incident gave me that missing thread. I used the incident to piece together the story that I wanted to tell.<\/p>\n

“I always had the bigger reality in mind & wanted to make film on it” says @bikas<\/a> Bikas Mishra director of Chauranga http:\/\/t.co\/RaEtC91KVb<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Learning&Creativity (@LearnNCreate) December 16, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n