Marathi filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane has been making India proud on the global stage. After the highly-acclaimed film Court, Chaitanya left everyone at the 77th Venice Film Festival in awe with this second directorial The Disciple. The film that highlights Hindustani classical music in its full glory, won the prestigious FIPRESCI award. The last Indian film to win the award was Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Mathilukal in 1990. Chaitanya also won the Best Screenplay Award. Talking about The Disciple's big win at the 77th Venice Film Festival, Chaitanya told a leading daily that one can never get used to acclaim.
"It was a big moment for us because even if your previous film has won some awards, every film is a new battle. So, there was a lot of curiosity and suspense over how The Disciple would be received, and it was nice to know that the FIPRESCA jury thought it was the best film for them in the competition. Also, to win the Best Screenplay Award given by the official jury with such stalwarts in the mix made it very special given that this time it was the main competition. You can never get used to such acclaim," he told.
The Marathi language film that stars Aditya Modak, Arun Dravid, Sumitra Bhave and Kiran Yadnyopavit is being showcased at prestigious global film festivals including Toronto and New York along with Venice. Speaking about it, Chaitanya said, "We couldn’t have asked for a better Fall festival launch. We feel incredibly grateful that in such an uncertain year, we could put our film out there for people to watch. The idea is to take it to a wider audience now."
Assuring that The Disciple will release across the nation, Chaitanya said, "We will definitely bring it to India, be it a theatrical or an online release. We are talking to different players but nobody has an answer yet."
For the unversed, Chaitanya's directorial debut Court (2014) was selected as India's official submission for the 88th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Speaking of whether The Disciple will take India to Oscars and bring home an award, Chaitanya said, "So far, we were only focused on the world premiere in Venice. If we do get picked, it would be a massive honour and we will do our best not just to promote our film, but represent Indian cinema on a global stage."
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
