The contemporary Filmmaker Homi Adajania shared his experience of communicating real situations through engaging stories and regaled the students with his inimitable style of making movies in Hindi & English for an Indian Audience at Whistling Woods International (WWI), Mumbai this Tuesday evening. As it is a regular feature of the Institute, the film forum at WWI is all about interactive sessions with actors, directors, producers and technicians of recently released films with the students. This week, the students had a great opportunity to interact with maverick director, Homi Adajania and cinematographer Anil Mehta after the screening of their film ‘Finding Fanny’.
Explaining the intricacies of ‘Finding Fanny’ filmmaker Homi Adajania said, “Finding Fanny was all about diversity, where all characters redeem themselves. I try to mix and match my observations of people, emphasize moments, which reflects in my characters. Every actor has to be directed differently and you have to build that trust with them so you need to sit with them and know them.”
Speaking about debuting in Bollywood, Homi Adajania’s advice to the students was, “There will be a certain amount of uncertainty when you enter the big world of cinema where everyone looks at you; but just be confident and believe in your vision. You should make sure that you share a great relationship with your actors.” He was perceptive in his understanding of questions and struck a chord with the students. The dynamic between him and students was contagious, and his intimate knowledge of filmmaking made the class not only incredibly fun to listen to, but educational as well.
Anil Mehta encouraged the students to challenge themselves to a higher standard of work. He spoke about the difficulties he had to face while shooting about which he said, “We had to cover a lot of ground to process our vision of the film. Once you have worked with a director, you understand things, which are left unsaid. I get myself involved in the initial stages of the script. Business of a cinematographer is to materialize what is written and said.”
The students got best of both the Director and Cinematographer and some of them vowed to follow their advice in their own work.
Meghna Ghai Puri, President, Whistling Woods International said, “WWI takes pride in the fact that our Film Forum over the last 9 years has grown exponentially. We ensure that films from various genres and categories are screened, and experts from the industry come to interact and share their expertise.”
