‘A new phase has begun for me’

After the reading with Ahire,Nihalani decided that the best way to portray the story would be to keep the cinematography as realistic as possible. “I knew that the story has no scope for fantasy. Everything has to be as real as possible; there was no scope for fancy lighting,we didn’t use any sets. I wanted each scene to look like we hadn’t used any artificial lighting,” he says. Nihalani has made several films based on communalism,politics and other social subjects in the past. Anumati on the hand “is a love story; it is the exploration of a character and his love for his wife. It is a story full of passion and compassion,” he says.

Cinema,according to Nihalani,is never static and is always in a state of change. “Our stories change,the techniques and styles change. I’ve been in the industry for fifty years,why should I make the same films I made fifteen years ago? I don’t want to be stereotyped,” says Nihalani.

The current generation is not a product of the Partition or Emergency,he says. They are a liberated generation who are open to ideas from all over the world. “So films today are made with a completely different sensibility and this is a positive thing,” he says.

Besides Anumati,Nihalani is also ending his sabbatical with an animated film that he has written,directed and produced. The film,Kamlu Happy Happy is about a baby camel who dreams of flying. “I love animation and graphic art. Long ago,I had met Ram Mohan,the father of Indian animation and I was inspired to make this film. In fact he created the basic concept of the characters. This film has

taken a long time to make but hopefully by this year,we will release it,” he says. Nihalani mentions that there are a couple of projects in the pipeline,including one Marathi film and another Hindi movie.

“The animated film took a lot of my time and resources over the past seven years. It was a huge investment and because I was the producer I could not help it. But now that this film is almost over,I am going to do everything I did before – write,direct,produce and photograph,” he says.