On the sets

Sanjay Satav, the sarpanch of Lavle, has played a role too8212;in promoting the village as a preferred shooting spot. 8220;Our village is close to the city and besides, it has just what filmmakers want8212;the right location, fields, houses and so on. What8217;s wrong in helping young filmmakers do their work? The gram panchayat lends them the essential support and takes care of the crew8217;s food, accommodation and other needs,8221; he says.

Here in Lavle, being an 8216;extra8217; is more than a hobby. Though they usually don8217;t get paid for their bit roles, it8217;s almost like second occupation for this community of farmers8212;400 of the 600 families in the village depend on agriculture.

Vaishali Satav, the sarpanch8217;s wife, says, 8220;I was in one film and my role was simply to follow a crowd. But I enjoyed it. About a year ago, we had even accommodated around 15 students of filmmaking at our home.8221;

However, few of the 5,000-odd residents of this village remember the names of the films they worked in or the ones that were shot here. Sarpanch Satav remembers some of them. 8220;One of them was Asud and then, there was Perte Wha, a film on farmer suicides. I once acted as a tehsildar. All I had to do was look stern as the peon gives me a letter,8221; he says, beaming with pride.

Shalan Kedari8217;s wada a typical Maharashtrian house, located in the heart of the village, is a popular location with filmmakers. 8220;The wada is more than a hundred years old. Jyoti Subhas, a veteran Marathi actress, was here a few months ago. The story was about a girl and lawani. I was made to sit in one of the shots,8221; he says.

The youngsters of Lavle have played their part too. Students of the two schools in the village8212;the Zilla Parishad Prarthamik Shala and the Mahatma Phule School8212;say they have all done bit roles. Mohini Shitole, a Class X student, is proud that a director chose her to do an 8220;important8221; role. 8220;Director Abhivyakti Patil chose me from among all the girls to play the heroine8217;s friend,8221; she smiles.

Lavle8217;s village film industry has opened up a few opportunities. Maya Kashilkar, Ranjan Chavan, Manisha Virkar and Manda Chavan run a mess for visitors and film crew. 8220;We once served about 100 people for four days,8221; says Kashilkar.

Abhivyakti Patil8217;s Marathi short film, Pankh, was done as part of a project for the Department of Communication Studies, University of Pune. Shot in Lavle last December, it won two international awards. 8220;I wanted the feel of a typical village. I was looking around for locations when I came across this village. It was perfect, especially Kedari8217;s wada where I have shot a considerable portion of my film. The villagers were a great help8212;they even pitched in to construct the sets. Ours was a low-budget project and I am glad I came to Lavle,8221; says Patil.

Pradeep Waghmare8217;s Jhingrya is another acclaimed film that was shot in the village. 8220;My script required mud-spattered homes and my characters had to speak the dialect that8217;s spoken here,8221; says Waghmare, who shot the film in November 2006.

The Marathi film, Valu, which was recently screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, has a storyline very similar to Lavle8217;s. Valu is about a small village in Maharashtra, which finds itself in fear of a destructive wild bull. Two city officials arrive to catch the bull, but the job is trickier than they thought. They travel with a documentary filmmaker from the city who films their mission. The camera interests and involves the village folk much more than the bull. Soon, everybody in the village starts dreaming of a role in the film. Lavle has been there, done that before. But the villagers do nurse an ambition8212;seeing themselves on screen8212;and a grudge: not one of the filmmakers has ever come back to show them the films.