'Hola Venky' Goes Public, A Chat with Film Maker Sandeep Mohan

We sat down with Film Maker Sandeep Mohan to talk about his recent film ‘Hola Venky’, upcoming projects and life as a film maker.  The film maker took a different approach with his recent film and how he brought it to the fans.
 

SA: This being your 2nd film, was it a different experience?
SM: Moviemaking is a very demanding process – physically and mentally! In my case, I write the scripts too on my own. So the main challenge for me is to sustain my motivation for a long period of time. That for a restless person like me is a big challenge! As for the experience, I would say that in Hola Venky, I was more relaxed, than I was when I was doing my first film Love Wrinkle-free.

In Hola Venky, I didn’t even have a budget to speak of(We shot the movie under a budget of 20,000 dollars!). In my first movie, Love Wrinkle-free, despite being a low budget film for Indian standards, I had a 48 member crew. For my second feature Hola Venky, I had a crew of 3. So you see, it was vastly different. Both were great learning experiences though. If I have to compare the experiences, I would say that I enjoyed the Hola Venky experience much better since I didn’t have cater to too many egos in this one and I could focus on the task at hand. Also, since I had made a movie before, I was more at ease. I was willing to take more risks with the second film.

SA: You decided to go a different route with the films release, not screening at theaters in India, but rather taking a different approach, tell us a bit about why?
SM: Since I experienced a conventional theatrical release through my first film Love, Wrinkle-free, I was not very keen on going the same way with my second film Hola Venky. Since the budget of the film was 10 lakhs, which is less than the cost of a song in a mainstream Bollywood movie, I could experiment. I wanted to figure out a way to make a film and exhibit it without the help of the ‘”coterie” that surrounds film releases in India. I wanted to see whether, me as a writer-director can get control over the release of the movie too, without having to go through these middle men. So I came up with this concept of The Great Indian Traveling Cinema, where I started traveling with a Projector to various alternative spaces like Cafes, Pubs, Bars, Art Galleries, Corporate Offices, Homes, Coworker spaces. I travelled all around India, US and Singapore for more than a year screening Hola Venky to those interested. I used to ask people to Pay as they wish if they like the movie. I felt very free doing things this way. I am confident that indie filmmakers can sustain themselves if they innovate and take it upon themselves to spread the word about the movie. Too much is outsourced, and once you outsource, the budget goes up and then it is very difficult to recover that kind of money too.

SA: Whats next? Any new projects on deck?
SM: I am one of the eleven filmmakers who are part of this collaborative feature film called X. This movie is produced by Manish Mundra and has Rajat Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Swara Bhaskar and others in the lead. I am writing the script for my next film at the moment and want to start the film sometime by the end of this year.

SA: For those inspiring film makers, what words of wisdom can you give?
SM: Don’t listen to anyone who says he is an expert. If you want to make your film, do it. Start small, but do it.

SA: What or Who is your inspiration?
SM: I am inspired by people who are not scared of failure.

SA: Any “Dream” projects who would love to be a part of?
SM: I would love to be able to write and direct a film with Owen Wilson or Ben Stiller…why not?:)

Recently Mohan made ‘Hola Venky’ free to the public dubbing it “Hola Venky Public Unlimited., here is a link to view the film online: www.vimeopro.com/sandeepmohan/holavenky