Devashish Makhija ahead of the release of his next, Joram: ‘The audiences pan-India must not be underestimated’

The filmmaker Devashish Makhija speaks about his upcoming film, Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Joram, ahead of its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam later this month.

Devashish Makhija reunites with actor Manoj Bajpayee in his next film, Joram, a survival thriller which will premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) later this month in competition. The filmmaker is showcasing his film at the festival for the third time in his career and states that IFFR “determinedly perseveres to seek out, showcase, support and champion fiercely independent cinema voices”. This year, the film festival is highlighting several Indian films, including Joram.

Filmmaker's Devashish Makhija's next feature Joram stars actor Manoj Bajpayee in the lead.

The writer and director spoke to Hindustan Times about audience tastes, working together with Manoj again and getting studio backing for Joram as it starts its film journey. Excerpts below:

How did the idea of Joram first come to you? How long did you work on the script?

Joram, like most of my scripts, took years to find its way into the world. It was first written in 2015, but has shapeshifted a few times before it finally got made. Anupama Bose, my producer-partner and I, came together as Makhijafilm to produce Joram when Zee Studios showed interest in backing it. It’s the first time I’ve had a producer by my side from day zero, walking in step with me to put this film together brick by brick. It’s impossible to estimate how long it takes to work on such a script or film, given the extensive and collaborative nature of its writing and making.

A survival thriller at its heart, Joram is not a singular character’s study like my previous feature films were. Joram’s landscape, character-scape and emotion-scape is massive. It’s about a land, its people, their personal belief systems, and the gargantuan systemic machineries that locate and dislocate us by turn. Such a film, rife with narrative conflicts at all levels, takes years to shape – most of that time spent on it is invisible to most, since a lot else is also happening simultaneously.

You are working with Manoj Bajpayee again in Joram, did you have him in mind while writing the script?

That’s the special thing about Manoj – you don’t need to have him in mind while writing a script. He can turn into almost anything you can imagine. I wrote this script before he entered my life. Once we had made Taandav, and then Bhonsle, I shared this script with him.

Performance is the most important element of filmmaking for me. Everything else – cinematography, edit, sound, music, colour, light, and my writing – is at the service of the character. Manoj was the first person I met in many years who probably identified that in my writing and my being. And here we are.

How was it like working with Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub for the first time on this project?

Nothing brings the filmmaker inside me more joy than being able to choreograph more than one fantastic actor in a performative dance within a scene pulsating with conflict. Zeeshan has delivered a simmering, internalized powerhouse of a performance. Zeeshan the actor is quite like a writer – he first excavates all the layers in his character, his scenes and his dialogues, and then knits his unique weave with those threads. In a scene with many co-actors, he is generous and always engaged – helping the others with their performance, looking for ways to better the scene itself, not just the character he plays.

Joram also gave me the opportunity to make many exceptional performers riff off one another. In the mix with Manoj and Zeeshan are the formidable actors Smita Tambe, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Rajshri Deshpande, and a host of sparkling new talent, including Megha Mathur, Jacky Bhavsar and the incredible infant who played baby ‘Joram’.

Actor Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub in a still from Joram.

You've spoken about how Joram aims to 'bridge that ever-shifting gap between the artistic cinema and the mainstream'. Do you believe that the audience's taste has evolved a bit in the pandemic as they have been open to seeing films from other industries as well?

Being a nation of so many cinemas in so many languages - cinemas that have now survived so many decades of exploration, discovery and transformation - I believe Indian audience tastes have always been evolved enough for all kinds of cinema to coexist. The pandemic only brought the focus back to the fact that the audiences pan-India (not just Hindi) must not be underestimated. The onus has always been on the makers and the backers of cinema to not allow the variety and quality to be compromised. Which is why when an entity like Zee Studios walks alongside independent film producers like Anupama and myself, it is a matter of hope for filmmakers and audiences alike that evolution of the kind you speak of is always on the anvil when these gaps are bridged.

What is your hope for the film after its world premiere at the festival?

Anupama, Zee Studios and I hope to screen at many more film festivals in the months after our IFFR premiere, before the film releases here in India. It is the first time I have seen a large popular studio walk hand-in-hand with a film this independent in spirit and intent and work with independent producers like us to find a balanced journey – travelling film festivals and international audiences, as well as eventually releasing it domestically. We collectively hope that this sets a precedent that may inspire many more filmmakers, producers, studios – independent, artistic as well as mainstream – to walk together in the making of such cinema. What a happy horizon that would be!

In the past two years, you've had your work presented at both virtual and physical film festivals. Do you prefer one over the other?

An indie-spirited, artistically-driven film that seeks to be watched and celebrated, both in India and in the world, is ultimately medium-agnostic. We need our film(s) to be watched, celebrated, engaged with, find a shelf life. Virtual and physical festivals are both capable of providing that in different ways. Each of these allows the film to be discovered by a different type of audience. Many people prefer one medium over the other today. Hopefully it is this intermingling of audience sets that eventually forms the viewer base of such cinema.

Joram too may screen at virtual as well as physical international and Indian festivals. Not all festivals have been able to summon the resources needed to come back into the physical form. We welcome them both. The engagement is diverse, and hence more satisfying.