The Kite Runner

How difficult was it to film a boy running after kites?

Zaid would cross roads, jump terraces, enter the narrowest lanes, just to catch the kites. He would take these kites to a terrace and then fly them. But there was a catch, Zaid’s home didn’t have a terrace and all of his muhaulla has kaccha rooftops. We decided to shoot Zaid only during the festival for two consecutive years — 2014 and 2015. During the second year, the whimsical nature of the city and Zaid’s community, too, added to the narrative.

Filmmaker Hardik Mehta

How closely did you work with cinematographers Piyush Puty and Harshbir Singh?

Piyush has been a driving force of this film. Harshbir joined us in the 2015 schedule and shot some jaw-dropping footage. Both of them are not from Gujarat and they gave a fresh perspective to the visuals. Piyush and I decided to film Zaid only on telephoto lenses for the first year so we are not too close to him. By the next year, as he got comfortable with us, we went closer to him. On the last day, we went the closest to him and were chasing him when he ran in the middle of the road.

You’ve also made a short film Skin Deep in the past. Tell us about your journey as a filmmaker?

Skin Deep is very special as I got to direct a script written by Vikramaditya Motwane. It was shot by Mahendra Shetty. I edited the film and did all post-production myself. It released theatrically as a part of an anthology called Chaar Cutting. With Amdavad Ma Famous, we took a huge leap. We have been awarded at six film festivals, travelled to HotDocs, Canada, this year and we won the National Award for Best Non-Feature Film. This film allowed me to be a brave and an independent director, apart from opening up the genre of documentary for me.

What’s the status of the film you wish to direct?

I had been working on a screenplay since a couple of years and it was approved by a studio. However, we can’t shoot with the actor we had decided on earlier. Now, I am to look at that script with a new actor.