A Potpourri of Vestiges
recently caught up with filmmaker and corporate trainer Ajay Govind who is the
line producer for Onir’s upcoming film Shab. An English Literature Graduate
from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Ajay has engaged with a range of
projects and different clients in over 22 states across India. In 2014, Ajay’s
debut feature film as a writer-director After the Third Bell released in
theatres across 8 cities. He subsequently line produced My Birthday Song,
directed by actor Samir Soni. He also
wrote lyrics for three songs in the movie. He has also directed 4 music videos
for independent artists. Ajay is currently working on the screenplay of his
second feature film Ek Na Ek Din.
.
Excerpts
You
come across as a person with multifaceted talents. How did you get associated
with Shab as a line producer?
Well, I have been writing
and directing films for a little over 10 years now. I had made a feature film which
released in 2014 and during the making of this film I happened to interact with
Sanjay Suri in the Goa Film Bazaar. Both Onir and Sanjay were instrumental to
the release of my film. Then I directed a music video for Sanjay’s production
in 2014. Sanjay then told me about Shab and asked me to line produce it. It was
a challenging project that involved four different shooting schedules spread
across four different seasons. Also, it was an exciting script and involved good
people and that’s really how Shab happened.
Shab
has been shot in Delhi across four different seasons. Tell us about the
challenges of shooting in Delhi.
The biggest challenge was to
not make it look typical. The locations that you usually associate with films
shot in Delhi feature in this film and so the challenge was to find something
that represents Delhi but not in a stereotypical manner. Onir had a very clear
vision and a very clear idea about the kind of houses… about the kind of places
we needed… such as the farmhouse we shot at or the cafes, etc. Since we mostly
shot at the night handling the crowd wasn’t a major issue. By far the biggest
challenge was to find the places for the shoot that Onir had in mind. Shooting
across different season meant we required the same house at different times of
the year. So it was my job to convince the people to make the house available across
the year. And each time we had to set it up from the scratch matching the
earlier look. And with houses, cafes, etc. things tend to change. So this was a
major challenge.
Could
you please explain in layman terms what exactly the job of a line producer is
all about?
To put it in very layman
terms line producer is like a wedding organizer. So you have to take care of
your guests, in this case your actors, your crew and your team. You have to
identify the locations. Often you have to locate the right team of local
technicians. You need to find the right vendors in a project like this. Then it
also involves the food, catering, transportation and the logistics of it. So it
is the job of the line producer to put the entire show together according to
what the director has in mind. We are given one liner of the script so we exactly
understand the kind of location that a particular scene requires… the brief of
the characters so that we know what their world is, etc.
How
does the job of a line producer, a sort of a routine job, excite a creative
person like you?
As a filmmaker being part of
films is what is exciting. Now I have handled documentaries and small indie
films but to be a part of this crew and project which was bigger in scale was
what excited me. As a director you can be disconnected with the realities of production
and so when you work as a line producer you get to appreciate the physical limitations
better. So for me it was just an opportunity to learn a side of filmmaking which
I hadn’t directly got involved in.
How
was it working with Onir as a director and Sanjay as a producer?
One of the biggest reasons
why I wanted to do this project was because of the opportunity of working
closely with Onir and try and see and understand his process. And that was
quite an eye-opener. You see every filmmaker has his/her own style. Now Onir is
an editor also and because he is an editor he has the entire film ready in his
head. Since I have studied cinematography my visual power tends to overpower
the editing sense. So I am usually very clear with my visuals but I don’t have
my edits very well planned. Bur Onir has everything sorted and so it was a
fantastic experience working with him as it taught me better how one can
economize shooting schedules by having a proper edit plan in mind. With Sanjay
I had worked previously on that music video. So I already had a sense of how he
works. As a producer he is very understanding and is fully aware of what
exactly a script needs and is very good at making sure that the team executes
those tasks.
You have been working with Sanjay Suri closely for over three years now on different projects. Have
you ever been tempted to cast him in one of your own projects?
Of course I am. In fact, I
have spoken to Sanjay about that. I do have a script that we would like to work
together. It’s just a matter of finding the financiers and other collaborators.
Tell
us about your first film and the second one you are working on.
The first one was called
After the Third Bell. It’s shot in a very indie manner with Cannon 5D over a
period of 15 days. It’s shot by my DOP Tanweer Ahmed who has been working with
me for the last 12 years and has shot all my films. I was really fortunate to have
managed a limited theatrical release after a crowd funding campaign in 2014. My
second film Ek Na Ek Din is a a sort of a slice of life thriller about five
different characters, disconnected from each other, which run into each other
one fine day. It is about the change that takes places for different people on
that particular day. Right now we are in the process of getting funds for this
one. So we are currently targeting the end of the year.
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