Making a film is like falling in love with a girl: director, I Am Kalam

Twelve odd national and international awards later, Nila Madhab Panda’s debut feature film I Am Kalam is ready to release in Indian Besides being chosen as the Best Film at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and by the Young Jury at the International Film festival India, Goa; the film won Madhab the Aravindan Puruskaram for the Best Debut Director in 2010.

The film hasn’t only garnered critical acclaim, but has also been sold in 21 countries so far. “It is full-fledged commercial cinema. It is the content of the film that matters. Emotions that are universal can cut across all sections of people in any part of the world, says Madhab.

I am Kalam is the story of a boy in a village in Rajasthan who works at a dhaba, and sees APJ Abdul Kalam as his role model. He wants to go to school and become like him when he grows up. “It is a comment on the current socio-political situation of the country, told like a fable. I wanted to tell it in a colourful and happy-go-lucky way,” the filmmaker says.

Although I Am Kalam contains all the elements of commercial cinema, the director claims that there is a subtext of class struggle in the film, besides the overt themes of child labour and child education. “I feel very suffocated the way India is going now. My 7-year old child can choose among 200 options to watch on television and 10 different options to eat a pizza. This is a contradictory society and I want the film to motivate the educated and privileged masses to do something about it.”

The journey of I Am Kalam:

I Am Kalam has been produced by an NGO Smile Foundation that works for poor children. “I am a true believer of independent cinema. I believe that if a director knows his story and knows the actors, he will do well for himself. He doesn’t need the pressure of ten other creative people. That is why I didn’t want to go to any of the studios to produce my film. I noticed that Smile Foundation was working on innovative ideas with children. So I approached them with the idea of I Am Kalam which they liked and we got on with the film.”

On casting Harsh Mayar as the protagonist, who recently won the National Award for Best Child Actor for I Am Kalam, Madab says, “We were auditioning a lot of children. But the moment I saw this kid, I could see an aura around him and I knew he would be perfect for the role.”

Nila Madhab Panda was wary of handing over his film to distributors in India and hence the delay in the theatrical release of I Am Kalam. “It’s like bearing the child in your womb for nine months. What if when the child is born, someone takes it away?”

So the Indian distribution of the film was put on hold for a long time while Madhab and his team enjoyed the journey to thirteen international film festivals with their film. “Distribution is a big game in India, everyone is scared as to how they can reach out to people. People with money can make a bad film work and a good film can be ruined for the lack of money.”

However, Reliance agreed to distribute I Am Kalam in India and then many sponsors came ahead to support the film.

Madhab has been taking his own sweet time to enjoy the fruits of his labour (of love). He says, “A director can’t do ten films a year. Making a film is like falling in love with a girl. You can’t be in love with ten girls together. I’m happy with the way it has worked so far with I Am Kalam.”

He will begin shooting his next film in three months. He also has an ambitious project with famous Hollywood actor Richard Gere lined-up for 2012.

His reflection in the film:

“You can find the reflections of my own childhood, survival and growth in the film,” says Madhab. He comes from a poor family in a remote village in Orissa.

“I wasn’t a child labour but my uncle used to make me work in the fields or his home after school. I hated it and always wanted to run away from home.” Madhab didn’t attend school regularly till class five.

After dropping out of college in the second year, he arranged for some money from his father and came to Delhi to become a salesman. He worked as a sales assistant in a shop that sold cell phones. Sometime later, he met a cameraman for documentary films through a friend and began assisting him. Madhab was living in extremely impoverished conditions in Delhi.

After struggling for few years, he started making short documentary films. “It was through working on such films that I met Barbara Broccoli, a producer on the James Bond franchise. My association with Barbara gave me an insight into the kind of films that would appeal the world over.”