Om Raut: I always wanted to be a motion picture director, and I am proud to be one

Filmmaker Om Raut, who is currently filming Adipurush with Prabhas and Kriti Sanon, admits that getting awarded for his debut Hindi directorial was very “gratifying”.

Even as OTT platforms have taken the entertainment world by storm, there are still some who live and breathe cinema, the whole 70 mm experience, and filmmaker Om Raut is one of them. His debut Hindi film, Tanhaji (2020) — a grand scale historical film for which he recently received a best director award — is a proof of it.

Filmmaker Om Raut recently bagged the best director award for his film, Tanhaji (2020).

“I have always said that I am not an accidental filmmaker. I planned my career well since my childhood. I always wanted to be a motion picture director and I am proud to be one. Filmmaking has been on my mind since I was in the fourth grade. It is very exciting now to finally become one and to top it all, to get an award for it,” shares Raut.

The filmmaker, who earlier helmed the critically acclaimed Marathi film, Lokmanya: Ek Yug Purush (2015), finds it “humbling and gratifying” to get an award for his very first Hindi film.

“It is something very satisfying and extremely encouraging. At the same time it has given a sense of responsibility to come back to work and try to do the best I can,” he adds.

So, does this put pressure on him to deliver with his next? Raut, who is currently filming Adipurush with Prabhas and Kriti Sanon, says he rather takes it as a confidence booster.

“I am glad that it has come at the right time for me. We are looking at it in a positive way. It is about how we can use it in the right sense and implement in our work,” the director explains.

Talking about shooting his new film amid the pandemic, he says, “I think it is fine. Since we are all in the pandemic, we are in a different mindset with the shoot but on the floor we are having great time. Cinema is a collective art and we are putting a lot of hard work into it, blood and sweat and mind and heart at the end of the day. Adipurush is that film which is more of a mission within the team. It is lovely to channelize our forces and work towards the same goal,” he concludes.