The genuine happiness is hard to miss when we speak to Vasan Bala, a day after the announcement that his debut directorial, Peddlers , has been selected for screening at Cannes Critics Week. Talking to us on phone, enroute to his office, he says, “Yes, we are terribly excited.” Cannes Critics Week is a parallel section at Cannes Film Festival that discovered filmmakers like Wong Kar Wai and Bernardo Bertolucci among others. Peddlers will also compete for the Camera d'Or.
Until a couple of days ago, not many in the mainstream film circles in Mumbai or the media had heard about Peddlers . Vasan Bala, for most, was the man who had assisted Anurag Kashyap for Dev D, Gulaal, That Girl in Yellow Boots and was now struggling to make his own film. We use the word ‘struggle' because it's still a daunting task for independent filmmakers.
“To begin with, I just wanted to make a film. I wrote a couple of scripts, showed in to a few people hoping to get funding. Then I started working backwards. I thought if I wanted to make a film within Rs. 50 lakh, what kind of story would work, what characters, the setting… etc. Peddlers is a thriller with parallel stories. It's not a plot-heavy film and follows the principal characters,” explains Vasan.
Vasan, with the help of Guneet Monga and Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt Ltd, turned to Facebook to find more funding. “Guneet put up a status message asking for friends who are willing to contribute Rs. 10 lakh. We got responses within a day,” he says. The budget, including postproduction costs, went up to a crore.
Given the budget constraints, there wasn't enough money to get permissions to shoot in certain locations. With a small crew (15 members), Vasan worked his way around. “We would just set out and shoot, hide if we sighted a problem and then resume the shoot again. We wanted to show Mumbai like a ghost town and avoided the usual shots of crowded Mohammad Ali Road and other areas. Though there are millions in Mumbai, we wanted to show the idea of people being locked within their own spaces,” he says. Peddlers stars Gulshan Devaiah, theatre actor Siddharth Menon, Kriti Malhotra (of Dhobi Ghat fame) and Nimrat Kaur among others.
Vasan's success is even more endearing when we learn that he was a drifter till the age of 28, taking up random jobs including advertising. “I had never given a thought as to what kind of job would make me happy. I just followed my friends who seemed happy with their respective jobs, but found that what works for them doesn't work for me. For a couple of months I sat at home and then told my parents that I wanted to make movies,” he says.
The declaration was surprising for his parents. “I come from a Tamil Brahmin family in Matunga. At first, my parents were just glad that I wanted to do something,” he laughs. Vasan didn't join a film school. “The thought of being amidst film school students and made to feel as though I knew nothing was intimidating. I learnt on the job while working with Anurag,” says Vasan.
Did he realise he had a winner on hands with Peddlers ? “We showed a rough cut to Anurag and he was excited. He felt the film would go places,” says Vasan. After Cannes, the film will see an Indian release and make its journey to other international festivals.
And, like all happy stories, Vasan's parents are smiling too. “I explained to my mom about Cannes Film Festival. She googled a bit and was convinced it is ‘somewhat important'. I think she also told my dad about it and he seems reasonably satisfied,” laughs Vasan.
