No one was interested: Karan Gour

After a four year-long journey of overcoming difficulties such as shortage of funds, redoing the script and rejections from film festivals in India, Kshay, an independent film, finally releases today.

After a four year-long journey of overcoming difficulties such as shortage of funds, redoing the script and rejections from film festivals in India, Kshay, an independent film, finally releases today.

Director Karan Gour says, “Kshay is a film about obsession. I was obsessed with making a film, so what better topic than that?”

When making the film, the problems seemed insurmountable. “There were problems every single day. I started off with a 60-page draft in 2007 but any film that is under 70 minutes is considered short. So I extended the script to 100 pages,” says Gour. The makers even lost the apartment they had finalised to shoot in. Gour explains, “I needed just one permanent place to shoot in, as most of the film is set indoors. I first found a place in Pydhonie, but that deal fell apart. Then I went apartment-hunting practically everywhere and finally found one in Bhayandar for a rent of Rs 4,000. Finally, we started shooting in March 2008.”

In addition to his passion, it was the support of his cast and crew that kept Gour going for four years. “From our computers crashing to the camera not working, the problems kept piling up. Abhinay (the DOP) and felt really frustrated. But there was never the option of stopping after going so deep into the process of making the film. I wanted to finish it in 2009, but eventually we completed it only in 2011.”

Another major crisis was not getting selected by Indian film festivals. “No one seemed interested in the film. Eventually, we started applying to international film festivals. That’s when festivals like IFFLA (Indian Film Festival of LA), SAIFF (South Asian Indian Film Festival) to CIFF (Chicago International Film Festival) and others, welcomed us, and our film got the appreciation it desereved.”

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