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National Award winning film by filmmaker Hansal Mehta Shahid The film earned the filmmaker and its lead actor Rajkummar Rao immense critical acclaim. However, before its release in India, the film faced a lot of struggle. And now, speaking exclusively to us, Hansal’s son, filmmaker Jay Mehta revealed that the film initially did not find any buyers in India, even though it did well at international film festivals.
“We shot for 32 days over a period of one-and-a-half years, and the fact that the whole crew stayed put and we completed a film in such a short time.” 65 lakhs. That’s a huge achievement!,” says Jai, who was the executive producer and first AD (assistant director) of the 2012 film.
Shahid received positive reviews at several prestigious festivals from the Toronto Film Festival to Busan and many more.
Jai says, “Even after this, no buyer was found for Shahid. Then sometime after Toronto, Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) took place and there producers Siddharth Roy Kapur and Ronnie Screwvala saw the film and then the audience really liked it.”
Also read: Hansal Mehta reveals how producers refused to fund Rajkummar Rao starrer ‘Shahid’
Hansal is known for making tough films, even if he faces trolling and criticism for it. However, watching his father face it all has taught Jay an important lesson.
He said, “None of the films that I was a part of were easy to make. Their journey was always tough. So, for me, nothing is right if the journey is too simple. If it’s easy, it doesn’t really feel like a journey. It should be like a long walk, not a walk.”
After assisting in films such as Gangs of Wasseypur, Citylights, That Girl in Yellow Boots Jai has entered independent direction with the recently released series ‘Dabangg’. LooteraThis series also had Hansal Mehta as the show runner.
When asked how was his experience of working with his National Award-winning father as the director of his first independent directorial project, Jay Mehta revealed that Hansal was on the sets, but for a very short time.
“He only came for two weeks, but I mean I think being a director, it’s very hard to tell another director what to do. He was very trusting and we’ve been working together for so long that I don’t think anybody understands us as much as we understand each other. It’s almost unspoken. We can just look at each other and tell if it’s good or not. However, being around him is very intimidating because I’m always curious to know what he’s thinking because he’s much more experienced than me as a director. There’s no harm in getting a little reassurance that it was right, right?” Jay concluded.
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