E-Paper
A book on behind the scene anecdotes of films made at Pune’s iconic Prabhat studios released
The book, ‘Kisse Prabhatchya Chitrapatanche’ (stories from Prabhat’s films) is authored by Nitin Patki, projectionist and sound technician at FTII since 1984
PUNE While the iconic Prabhat film company went defunct in 1953, the physical studio still exists on the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) campus and part of the studio is the erstwhile Prabhat museum which saw the launch of a unique book named ‘Kisse Prabhatchya Chitrapatanche’ (stories from Prabhat’s films) authored by Nitin Patki, projectionist and sound technician at FTII since 1984.
The book – a compilation of behind-the-scenes anecdotes while making films during the Prabhat studio era – was launched in the presence of Jaywant and Anil Damle, and chief guest and son of Shantaram Athavale, Sudarshan Athavale, who has penned the famous book on Prabhat studio.
Patki has been around since 1984 and was lucky to have met a few technicians who had worked at Prabhat studio. His keen interest in Prabhat prompted former director Bhupendra Kainthola to encourage him to look after the Prabhat museum. It took Patki four years of research, collation of data from various sources, and cross-checking of the same with the Damles and others involved with the studio to come out with the book. “This book contains anecdotes of incidents that took place while shooting films during the Prabhat era. I have got very interesting stories to share of all that took place during the 37-odd films that Prabhat made,” said Patki.
“There was a scene in the film ‘Shejari’ where actor Gajanan Jahagirdar was playing a Muslim character who was supposed to be very angry. However, Jahagirdar was not displaying the kind of anger that director V Shantaram was looking for which made Shantaram tell the crew to throw Jahagirdar out of the studio stating that Jahagirdar was not even worth the job of a security guard. This angered Jahagirdar to the extent that it was visible in the shot. After the shot, Shantaram applauded the actor and said this was the perfect shot. The part where Shantaram told the crew to throw Jahagirdar out was just a charade to get the right shot out of the actor. Such were the ways in which Shantaram elicited the best shots from his actors,” Patki elaborated.
The book also highlights how the studio took care of its people in one incident during the filming of ‘Sant Tukaram’. “In the move ‘Sant Tukaram’, there is a scene of Tukaram flying on an eagle to Vaikuntha. It took two months of hard work to build the eagle and there were two to four trials before the shot was okayed twice during shooting. However, Vishnupant Damle mama insisted on another shot for safety. When flying the eagle, the bridge upon which it was mounted broke and he fell down with a bang. There was dust everywhere and people fled the scene. Gauri, who played the role of his wife quickly grabbed Tukaram maharaj by the hand and pulled him aside as he fell down. He wasn’t injured but Tatya Thopte, who was sitting inside the eagle and moving its wings to make it look like it was flying, was hurt badly. He was immediately admitted to the Sassoon hospital. Although it took six months, Prabhat did not fire him from his job and hired him back as soon as he was fit while bearing all his expenses,” said Patki.
