MAKING THE movie ‘Amu’ was never going to be easy but its makers, Sonali Bose and her husband, Bedabrata Pain, a scientist at NASA in the US, persevered, and the results are out for all to see and appreciate.
The biggest problem remained of garnering money from distributors. Moreover, when the movie was screened before the Censor Board, it’s members issued the movie an ‘A’ certificate. When Sonali asked them the reason, a Censor Board official said, ‘Why should Indian youth see it? It is based on riots’.
After the screening of her movie an emotional Sonali Bose, writer, director and producer of the movie, said with moist eyes, “We got the concept of making ‘Amu’, based on 1984 anti-Sikh riots as the incident compelled us to make a realistic movie which could send a lesson to the masses.”
Sonali said that initially they had to struggle to garner money to shoot the movie, as no financer and distributor was willing to touch a non-commercial movie. However, “My husband, Bedabrata, got a cheque for $50,000 from NASA as they liked the smallest digital camera technique developed by him. That amount became the real fund for making the movie.”
When Sonali was asked about other hardships she confronted while shooting the movie, she said, “Writing the script of the movie was a bit complex, as the subject was political but with the support of my husband and children, everything became surmountable and finally the movie was released
in 2004.” Sonali also said that she wanted to make such a realistic movie in future as well.
When Sonali was asked about other hardships she confronted while shooting the movie, she said, “Writing the script of the movie was a bit complex, as the subject was political but with the support of my husband and children, everything became surmountable and finally the movie was released
in 2004.” Sonali also said that she wanted to make such a realistic movie in future as well.
Standing beside Sonali a proud Dr Pain, who is an executive producer of the movie said, “The concept of the movie is not based on communal riots. It foccuses on State riots and we wanted to make people aware across the country about the real resons behind the riots and I am glad we succeeded in our endeavour.”
The couple said their forth-coming movies are ‘Armed revolution of 1931’ and Mutiny of 1946. These events are not known to people and the effort is to make people know about their glorious past.