Barah Aana: A Journey Three Quarters Complete
iView Author: Raja Menon (Mumbai, India)
Email: WITHHELD
Barah Aana: A Journey Three Quarters Complete
Here is an account of this week’s new release, the Indie film Barah Aana, in the words of the film’s director Raja Menon. Barah Aana is Raja Menon’s 2nd feature as a director, and both these films have been independently produced. Barah Aana is also novel in it that it is a an Italian Co-Production drawing its talent and crew from the land of De Sica and Rossellini.
I had never planned to be a filmmaker, but from the very first day that I was on a set I knew that I had fallen into the most exciting business in the world. My job that day was to make sure the crew could continue shooting on the main thoroughfare in the center of Bangalore even though we didn’t have permissions and the cops were breathing down our necks. I was hooked.
Years later, long after I had moved to Mumbai, I realized that not only did I want to tell my own stories, but I wanted to tell them the way I had envisioned them. Creative integrity was paramount to me and so I threw in my lot with the independent filmmaking world. I practiced my craft by assisting and then directing ad films.
Finally I took the plunge and made a film called “Bas Yun Hi.” This was 6 years ago, in the early days of the multiplex era. We were making an independent film, and there was a certain romance about that. Infected by the excitement, and being a young man in a hurry, I lost sight of the fact that one must first have a story one desperately needs to tell. Like many revolutionaries, I got caught up in the euphoria of the act and forgot the essence and core of why I was there. And like many independents, we had our share of financial problems. The results are there for all to see. It took me 5 years to recover and believe that in order to redeem myself I had to attempt to make at least one more film.
I started my search for a story, and the harder I searched the worse I wrote. I began to wonder if I really did have anything to say. Self doubt was always lurking nearby. And then one day it crept up on me, unexpectedly, without any fanfare.
I don’t know why, but I ended up chatting with my watchman and it dawned upon me that every opinion I had about him and people like him, was actually based on what I imagined they would be thinking. I had not realized until then how far away from the truth I was. His life in many ways mirrored mine. He too had come to Mumbai in pursuit of a dream, that of a better life. At that point I realized that his was a perspective I had never thought about. I had never once bothered to listen to what he had to say, nor had most of my friends. Yet people like him were all around us. I knew right then that I had to tell this story.
From this point on every day was a pendulum. Looking for a producer I realized very soon that I would have to find independent money as most studios come with a list of requirements I was not willing to accede to. Giulia Achilli, a young Italian producer, walked into my office and we hit it off right away. What followed was six months of lobbying to get Italian cultural ministry funding, finally succeeding in that, and then having to give it up because it meant using the funds primarily in Italy, which just didn’t make sense. What did come out of the Italian trip was casting Violante Placido, a popular Italian actress for the role of Kate. I realized later that she was going to be my little connection to “The Godfather” as her mother had played Apollonia, the Sicilian beauty Michael Corleone marries when he is exiled to Sicily. Bravo, as the Italians would say.
Having lost the money we thought we had, we started once again from scratch. Raj Yerasi, a close friend of mine, had all along been my bouncing board for the script. At some point, Raj said he might be interested in quitting his hedge fund job and coming on board. Little did he realize how much I would end up depending on him. Raj and Giulia raised the money from private sources and finally, a good year after we started looking, we believed we might actually be able to make Barah Aana.
The technical crew sort of picked itself. Anuradha Shetty (my wife and production designer), Priya Seth (my cinematographer), Debasish Mishra (my sound designer), and I had worked together on over 50 commercials, and we were very close friends. They had all been closely involved in the development of the story and so it was taken for granted that we would make this film together.
I needed a screenplay and dialogue writer. I searched in vain and while I met some fantastic people, the coin just didn’t fall into the slot. Then I met Raj Kumar Gupta. We chatted a bit awkwardly at first but by the second time we met, we fell into a groove. I knew I was in the company of someone special. Raj Kumar brought to the story an earthiness that can only come from having lived in Bihar or Jharkand. He knew the characters intimately. After many back-and-forth sessions, we were both comfortable with the screenplay we had.
Everyone who became a part of the team did so because they wanted to be a part of this film. The innate trust we had in each other was irreplaceable. There was a common goal of making the best film we possibly could and this went beyond our individual personal goals. Same with the actors… Naseer read the script and immediately said yes. Vijay walked into the hotel lobby where we were supposed to meet him and we knew he had to play the watchman. Arjun Mathur was a difficult choice but I went with my intuition and I’m really glad I did. Tannishtha was the first to hear my four liner and so she really did not have a choice. Violante felt this was her India calling, and Jayati Bhatia was just perfect for her role.
While there are always things one would do differently, I’m quite happy with the film we have created. However, as I sit here the day before our release, I have to confess that I am nervous. Barah Aana to me epitomizes passion for cinema in that this is one of few films that has not only been made but is also being released independently. If we succeed, I believe independent Indian cinema may have taken the first step to crossing the final frontier.
Tags: Barah Aana, Bas Yun Hi, De Sica, Giulia Achilli, God Father, Raja Menon, Rosselini, Violante Placido
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thanks for sharing Raja; and congrats on the upcoming wide release.
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Here’s wishing you and your team the very best!
Good Luck Raja
BTW your DOP, Priya Seth, wow, now i want to know..are there many Female DOP’s in Hindi film industry?
Great to know the genesis and the journey Raja.. looking forward to Barah Aana paving the way for more Indo-European Co-Productions.. Glad to have watched the film – a much-needed pertinent film for our times..
Kudos to the whole team!
Violante, Violante, Violante :-)
i just watched some of your trailers and absolutely loved them….
frankly speaking, the trailer left me confused. it looked like a heist, then it looked like a kidnap gone wrong; then it looked like some kinda dangerous tuff that the 3 chars indulge in for some money and fun,but turns out fatal.
interesting trailer…all the best
I’m gonna watch this film over Firaaq, somehow the idea of Firaaq was never attractive for me
Raja, nice insight into the genesis of the film. the trailer, as crazyrals says, is quite confusing, but intersting all the same. had not planned to watch it in multiplex, recession times u see. but after ur post, i think i can do my bit of supporting the independent cinema movement by spending some money on it upfront.
going to watch it today itself, as im sure tickets wud b available. hope the WOM puts ur movie on a better footig over other so-called ‘independent’ releases of the week like firaaq and aloo chat.
thanks raja. all the very best…
great luck raja…..
keep writing more….get your team in too….
truly indie!!!!!
All the best raja am surte it will do well. Now that you have done your bit. Just sit back and enjoy…
Way to go buddy!!!
May the audience spend “Paanch Rupaiya” from their side and come back to home with a satisfaction having “saulah aana” wala sach.
best wishes
Hey,
thanks everyone. Glad to be here and hope to stay.
cheers,
raja
Look forward to more such indie films. All the best Raja.
All the best Raja, watching it tonight!
I promise to answer all the comments questions individually, soon as I get some time. My guess is that means over the weekend.
thanks for your responses and glad you enjoyed the post.
cheers,
raja
@ Raja- wonderful write up, it was really amazing to know the origins of the movie.I certainly hope that you & all the others associated with the movie get all the appreciation & also earn the money you deserve
Independent cinema certainly needs more such ventures.And btw I did see your Bas Yun Hi in a multiplex & kept wondering how you managed to get Cafe Coffee Day’s association with the movie.
Raja, I just saw the film.
But I’m sorry to say it didn’t make a great impact on me. Believe me, I was trying hard to love it. Any film with Naseer is good enough for me to go see it even before I read the reviews. And guess what, I was waiting, waiting, waiting for Naseer to open his mouth! You certainly took a long time to make hime speak!
But that’s still okay. My main grouse is that the film takes a long time in just showing the everyday life of its characters. Nothing happens for a long time! And then, finally the film decides to ‘move’, it’s just not satisfying enough.
It left a lot to be desired, so to speak.
I loved the performances of all characters, especially Vijay Raaz. Even Arjun Mathur proved to be the right choice. Naseer, as usual was excellent, and though he doesn’t utter a word for long, his silence does speak. But you know, as a Naseer fan, I expect to hear him, especially after A Wednesday, where his speech at the end gave me goose pimples. As for Violante! Wow, she’s a find! I found her very charming. So she’s the daughter of Godfather’s ‘Appolonia’! No wonder.
All said and done, Raja, it was a good effort, which could have been great had you worked harder on the script to make it engrossing. Your direction is fine. Your cinematographer is fine. Your background music was okay, except for certain places where it jarrs, making one strain to hear the dialogue.
In fact, you got the ‘feel’ of the film right, with authentic looking sets. The sound design and editing…all that was fine.
But, the script, Raja, the script.
The script is the backbone of a film after all.
Raja,
I’m sorry, I forgot one thing in my previous post.
And that is -
Despite the shortcomings in this film, I certainly feel you have it in you to come up with something great. You have the potential and I’ll certainly be looking forward to your next film.
All the very best.
Raja,
You have letdown the audiences again
@shivajee,
When will see forzen on screens?
All the best, Raja!
hi raja.
congrats on the movie release and good luck for its success. I will definitely watch this.
cheers to indie cinema
Hi Mohanlal, sorry to disappoint you but I guess we see things from different perspectives and therefore tell and hear stories differently. All films don’t work for all audiences. I’m glad you found somethings of merit in the film. I am personally very happy with the way the story has been told. Every choice is mine and I take responsibility for it, for better or for worse.
thanks for all the wishes.
alll the best !!! will be watching it soonnn…
Hi Om,
I think there a couple of others outside of Priya, Depthi who I’ve worked with and one or two more in Bombay and I hear a woman is shooting something in chennai.
Btw Priya does most of the underwater cinematography you see in Hindi films and commercials. Yup she also dives.
thanks Thani,
glad you liked it .
hey Sethu,
Just went up to CCD and asked. Sometimes it surprises me how much you can get done if only you ask. Btw there’s Barrista in this one. Hope you enjoy the film, cheers
I really want to see this film. I’ll tell you why. I read Naseer’s interview in some newspaper recently and he had spoken about how he doesn’t read most of the scripts that come to him and how he agreed to do “Barah Anna” almost immediately.
That’s made me very curious. Naseer Bhai maintains that most of the work he’s done (as far as cinema is concerned) is utter rubbish. So when such a person says that there was something tremendously interesting about the script when he first read/heard it, there’s a lot of credibility. I mean, if Shah Rukh or Aamir had said something like this, I would have laughed. They say it all the time. It’s absurd.
Anyway, I hope to catch the movie soon enough. The premise sounds interesting. Let’s see.
G’luck Raja.
For me Aamir’s recommendation is more than enough. I saw ur movie yesterday with my 4 frnds. I liked it but the problem with the movie is its too slow in the frst half. Actuly in frst half nothing was happening thats wat we all felt, but second half was very good, it was fast, it was funny every entertaining element was there.
Liked all the performances Naseer sir is always brillient no matter wat he is doing, Arjun was ok, Violante was good but Vijay Raaj oh dear what an actor he is, he is the actor need to exploit more, he was superb here but i still believe his best performance was in Jungle, in which he speaks through his eyes.
All the best, good luck.
Raja,
Liked your film. Somehow one rarely sees the “other” India who live in cities, in our new-age films.
As an aside, had fun while seeing Sreeshant the cricketer in the news that Nasser is watching in his black and white tv…So you’ve managed to immortalize Sreeshant through your film eh:)
Would also love to know the number of days that you guys took for the shoot…Also if it’s fine, what kinda budget did you have?
Here’s wishing you more success.
“Jai Indie Ho”
Loved the sound design too
Hey Sandeep,
Glad you liked it! :-)
Had to promote a fellow mallu esp one going thru bad times, although I think it happened sub consciously!! ha ha..
Honestly it feels fantastic when I read comments about the little details in the background. Someone noticed that Shukla’s kholi had a god less temple, and someone else commented on the beedi, to cigarette to lighter etc. I really did not expect audiences to notice all this but when they do it makes all the painstaking planning worth it.
We shot in 34 days, with maybe 4 break days although I’m a little hazy recollecting if the 4 days are included in the 34 or not.
Regarding the budget I’d rather not have that discussion here. If it will hep you in any way call me and we can chat.
I’ll let Debu know that you like the sound design. Honestly we shot in such noisy locations I was amazed that we did not have to dub a single line. He is fantastic!!
Thanks for all the wishes. cheers
Hi Rajeev,
thanks for watching Barah Aana. I’m sorry you were not engrossed in the first half. My aim was to build the characters so that you empathise with them through the 2nd half otherwise it would have become another kidnap/ crime story which was not what I wanted to tell. I felt the humour even though dark would keep the audience engrossed while allowing me to develop the characters enough to make the 2nd half realistic. I guess the humour did not work for you. I have noticed that when it does which luckily has been more often than not, the audience seem be as engrossed through the first half as the second. I guess thats the great thing about cinema, every person has his/he own take on what they saw.
cheers, and thanks for the comments.
Nice post, it’s always exciting to read the genesis from the Director, though it reminds me of the mundane self-existence.
I have submitted my review thru’ ProjeKt I view. I hope PFC will publish it. Would love to know what do you think about my thoughts on the movie. I will post the link, once published.
Thanks for making a thoughtful movie.
Cheers!
~uh~
Simply Brilliant!!!! Kuddos!!!
cool ~uh~ look forward to reading your review.
And thanks Anshu, glad you liked it. cheers
Wonderful insights. Actually we as viewers are fans with a list of wants and dont wants in a movie. And we just love the insights. In fact Ram Gopal Varma too, in his blog, writes about how he conceived a scene, how he convinced investors, how he became a director. His blogs makes interesting reading, one because he is blunt and jovial in his responses, and second he discusses philosophy, books, movies and how to live as well.
I came to know of a name called Veda from your movie. Later when my daughter was born, I named her Veda. Why did you name your heroine Veda (Actually its Vedika). I did because my name was Vinay and my wife’s name was Sharada. A combination of first letters was not acceptable. Therefore I took my first letter and wife’s last letter to come up with Veda
Nice!! And I thought you were deeply moved by my film . lol
Dear Raja
I am an investment banker. One of the services entail facilitating private equity for companies. So am curious about the financing aspect of movies. Because all entreprenuers would like to get as little private equity as possible and avail as much debt as possible. Therefore their returns increase considerably.
In case of movies, do the makers get debt at all? And that too in this market? I had heard IDBI was the only bank. And they too must be giving debt to the absolute biggies. Then, does the movie market run totally on equity? Then again, the “running time” of the equity in case of movies is only one year. And they get their returns anyways in one year flat. Interesting. How does a first time director manage to get private equity for his film?
So the film industry has received industry status only as on paper. If you cant get institutional funding, then its actually an unorganized sector. But for the corporates, film industry would still be going to the underworld for their funds!
Hey Vinay,
Interesting to see an investment banker on PFC. As interesting as the fact that my partner and producer Raj Yerasi is an ex investment banker (J P Morgan, NY), hedge fund guy who came on board this project about at an early stage. I definitely think you both should connect as he would be the right guy to answer all your questions but I’ll try.
Films need financing for a relatively short time frame so what we look for is private equity with the producers keeping the sweat. Debt is expensive if not institutionalized but there are a few banks that do give films debt. This debt is protected by the rights such as satellite ,dvd etc. The problem is that unless you have a big saleable star you don’t really know what you’ll get for these rights therefore the banks won’t fund you, and if you have a star attached you don’t need the debt because you could pre-sell the rights to finance your film. Catch 22.
The only light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that if you are organised enough you could potential sell a realistic idea to a private investor. Luckily there are a few of them out there who love films enough to take the risk. Generally their fear is whether you will finish the product on time on budget cos if not your entire investment is sunk.Although there are lots of ways to protect all that too like insurance etc.
Hope I manged to shed some light on your questions. Let me know if you want to connect with Raj and I’ll set it up.
cheers
Just saw it today…brilliant watch!!!
but really disappointed that there were just about 35 to 40 ppl in the theater.
Some more discussion with Raja menon on the movie can be found here- http://passionforcinema.com/barah-aana-count-you-chillar-before-they-change/
lol….so there is one more guy from Private Equity business in PFC ;-)
Cheers!
~uh~
It’s not a great peice of writing but my two cents on Barah Aana… www.ramblingsofadelhiboy.blogspot.com
Sheesh! Getting funding for Indie is tough. And I thought investment banking was the toughest.
Glad there are a few people who connected with the film. Thanks for going Kiran, may your tribe increase :-)
Hey Anant. finally managed to read your blog as it did not open when I connected from the facebook link you sent me. Thanks for reviewing the film. Me and you may not agree on everything which of course is fine but what I don’t like about the review is your last line. I don’t think anyone should go to the cinema to support anything. That isn’t the audiences job. They should go because they want to see a film and believe it might be entertaining or good. I believe reviewers and people who can make audiences go to the theatre should make it their job only to review the film, not to pre decide or guess its box office fate. Often times they decide or at least try to decide the fate of the film even before the film has been given a chance. I don’t know how much this affects the film but I think it is important to allow the film that chance and a decent opening especially if it is the kind of film that can’t naturally expect a huge opening. Hope you don’t mind my being candid.
Absolutely. In fact for the same thing that you raised, Raja, about allowing the film that chance and get a decent opening, I feel that no review should be allowed to be put up in national newspapers or any portals for atleast one week of the film’s release. Reviewers should not be given any chance of deciding a film’s fate. It works in the viewer’s favour, but doesnt in the maker’s. After all, reviewers’ opinion may be agreed upon by a miniscule amount of people. And each one is entitled to his own opinion. No reason, why one person’s opinion be thrust and broadcasted to all.
Esp given the quality and knowledge of our reviewers. I don’t have a problem with opinions. The Hindu writes a review, doesn’t give stars, nor does it play astrologer, like wise there are a few more in the business who seem to do it right. Someone once told me that stars are given so that the publication gets free advt, meaning if a film is given say 3 stars, then the distributors will put that in their block ads saying 3 stars by xxx from publication x etc. Funny how the whole system is leverage based.
Raja,
This is Vispy here buddy. Despite my best intentions, I could not catch your movie when it was playing. But I am keenly looking forward to the DVD version. I do want to congratulate on realising your vision with complete conviction and as best you could. You have my best wishes Raja. :-)
hey Vispy. . . Where are you now man? well the film is still in a few theatres with rather uncomfortable show timings but see if you can make one of them. Or I’ll let you know if we have a screening which we might for a bunch of non hindi speakers who have been asking me to have a subtitled screening. Nice to get back in touch . take care
Btw, this is the same Vispy I know from advt right?
Absolutely buddy, the same Vispy, (Vistasp). I was in a frenetic work phase when your film came out and an infact wanting to catch a screening even if it is odd hours. Any idea where in the Mulund / Thana belt?
I am in JWT for the past two years now. Have done moderately well for myself. :-)
Raja- BTW the Barista placement is rather well done here.So I assume that you did the same thing as you did with CCD in Bas Yun Hi?
Raja,
I really liked ‘Barah Anna’. Please keep up the good work that you and your team are doing!
Cheers,
Arani