While expressing his happiness over the success of Mumbai Mist and his hope for the growth of digital market in India, director, scriptwriter and producer Madhur Bhandarkar, a 2016 Padma Shri awardee, also expressed his unhappiness over the fragmented film fraternity in India that did not stand by him in support during his lone battle with the courts and sensor board to save his watered down bloodless version of emergency on celluloid - Indu Sarkar.
Bhandarkar was in Goa to share his experience at BRICS Film Festival in Chengdu, China, where he represented India, with his short film Mumbai Mist, which received a standing ovation. The film was a part of The Magnificent Five - Directors Collaboration Project for the BRICS Film Festival.
"It was a good experience at BRICS. It's a challenge to tell a story in 17-18 minutes through a short film but thankfully we made it to the big platform, where I had the opportunity to interact with Chinese producers and filmmakers," said Bhandarkar, a national award winning Bollywood personality. Mumbai Mist, is themed on the shortage of time in today's fast-track life. The film shows a fond bond shared between a retired man and an orphan rag picker from the Mumbai slums. The characters are played by Annu Kapoor as Chandrakant and child actor master Devrath as Charlie.
At BRICS, Bhandarkar represented India, alongside globally-feted storytellers like Brazilian Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries fame), Chinese director-screenwriter Jia Zhangke, Russian storyteller Aleksey Fedorchenko and South African filmmaker Jahmil XT Qubeka. "My short film was a part of ‘The Magnificent Five-Directors Collaboration Project for the BRICS Film Festival' with the theme, ‘Where Has Time Gone', an anthology feature film showing five segments directed by five directors from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It explores the theme of time and love through each one's own perspective," said Bhandarkar. Zhangke was the executive producer who put together all five short films.
Commenting that there is a market for short films in India, especially in the near future, Bhandarkar pointed to the positive responses and feedback he received for Mumbai Mist. "Many subjects need less time to deal with and with the advent of digital technology and social media, the content is growing. A lot of content is being put on the web services and even big players are involved in this. Big names are acting in it too. Digital market is here to stay. With people's involvement it's growing and spreading fast, getting stronger day by day," he said.
Bhandarkar also chose recalled his struggle with the release of Indu Sarkar back home. "I have supported films like ‘Padmavati' but when it came to Indu Sarkar nobody supported me. One or two friends called me and told personally that they are with me, but when I asked them to say this publicly, they expressed their inability to do so," he said.
