Tingya director’s debut Hindi film Dekh Indian Circus hits national jackpot

Before his excitement could settle,he got another call. This time,someone informed him that Dekh Indian Circus has won the Best Children’s Film Award. Two more calls followed. The lead actors of the film ‘Nawazuddin Siddiqui’ and ‘Tannishtha Chatterjee’ – have won Special Jury Award for Hadawale’s film.

“This film has already won several awards at various International film festivals. However,the feeling of your film winning four national awards is something that cannot be expressed in words. It’s an honour beyond everything else,” says elated Hadawale,whose well-acclaimed Marathi film Tingya had also won the Best Child Actor Award in 2007. He adds,“When kids are acting in your film and they get recognised,the feeling is similar to how a mother would feel when her child wins an award.”

Eleven-year-old Virendra,who won the Best Child Artiste,was selected by Hadawale after auditioning 11,800 children. The boy had absolutely no background in acting and needed grooming from the scratch. “All the efforts have paid off,” says the filmmaker.

Around seven months away from its release,Dekh Indian Circus has already received some rave reviews at various international film festivals such as New York International Film Festival,16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF),Sweden International Film Festival,47th Chicago International Film Festival,Palms Spring International Film Festival,Los Angeles International Film Festival and Children’s Film Festival (India).

“The National Awards are the biggest recognition in the country and an honour like this helps during the release of the film. People look forward to award-winning films and the film gets a good opening,” Hadawale added.

Dekh Indian Circus is shot primarily in Rajasthan,and is about the struggle of a not-so-well-to-do couple and their children. While Siddiqui and Chatterjee play the parents’ roles,the kids’s roles are played by Virendra and Suhani,both Rajasthan-based. “The film reflects the perplexities of rural India,” he said. Interestingly,the idea of DIC was born even before the release of ‘Tingya’.

“While standing at a ticket counter of the Kelkar Museum in Pune,I heard the conversation between a woman and two kids. The children were trying to coax the woman into joining them in the museum,but the woman kept on refusing. I assumed that the family was poor and probably can’t afford to buy three tickets and so the script came into existence. That’s why DIC revolves around Rs 25,” recalls Hadawale.

Hadawale does not have a formal training in film-making. He has grown up watching tamashas at Narayangaon and movies by Prabhat Films like “Shejari,” Ganga Jamuna,Gopal Krishna and Sant Tukaram. “The awards prove that people do take notice of good work irrespective of the background of the director and genre of the film,” he said.