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With a belief that films were a medium for dialogue and communication among people, 27-year-old Mangesh Hadawale's journey to gain foothold in the film industry was a struggle period of two years. 'Tingya' written and directed by the young filmmaker hailing from a family of farmers, was screened in the Indian Panorama section last night at the ongoing 38th IFFI here. Armed with a script which dwells into innocence and emotion of a child in the backdrop of a grim reality of farmers suicides, Mangesh, who always wanted to be a filmmaker, knocked the doors of 41 producers till he found his wave length matching with noted television producer Ravi Rai. ''The two years of finding a producer was a painful process,'' he admitted. ''Since I was poor in communicating in English, I came into contact of Mr Rai through a common friend whom I had approached to write the draft of a letter to animal welfare board seeking permission to shoot since bulls featured prominently in my film,'' Mangesh said while addressing a press conference. Ravi Rai, who was also present, said , ''I asked Mangesh to narrate me his film's story in two minutes so that I could mention the details in the draft letter. I was impressed and asked him about the producer. When he said he had no producer, I offered to produce it myself. I asked Mangesh whether he would make the film exactly as he had scripted it.'' Speaking about his experiences with producers before he met Mr Rai, Mangesh said he had approached Mukta Arts promoted by Subhash Ghai, Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC), Ashutosh Gowarikar to name a few. ''Mukta Arts told me that they do not produce regional films.
But, later I came to know that they are doing one Marathi movie.
While Gowarikar told me that he was busy with Jodhaa Akbar. He also said that I should go ahead with my movie in case I found a producer. In fact, I received a SMS from him wishing me luck for the screening of my film in the Indian Panorama section,'' Mangesh said. He said some producers wanted me to cast Urmila Matondkar as 'Tingya's mother and incorporate a scene where Tingya's father goes to watch a Rakhi Sawant item number. A graduate in dramatics from the Pune University, Mangesh said he had made it clear to producers, whom he approached, that he wanted non- actors in his film and would shoot at actual locations. Besides, the film would be made in Marathi, he added. ''I associate myself with lot of incidents depicted in my film.
Since, 1993 on an average 26 farmers commit suicide every day in different parts of Maharashtra,'' he said.
He screen tested over 1200 boys to finally select the child actor, who hails from a family of Dhangars (Shephards) to essay the role of 'Tingya'. While the girl Rashida was selected from 700 girls. Ravi Rai admitted that despite being screened at the third eye Asian film festival in Mumbai, Asian film festival in Pune and IFFI, he had not got any distributors for the film. ''The film will be screened at Pune International Film Festival and Mumbai International film festival next year after which it will go to Berlin. I plan to release the film theatrically in April so that more and more children could see it during holidays. I am confident of its commercial success as it has been made from the heart,'' he added. ''I liked the script and the manner in which Mangesh had shot it so much that I wanted to own the film. I do not regret my decision,'' Mr Rai added.
He lamented that his Maharashtrian friends were among those who tried to discourage him from venturing into producing a Marathi film. ''For me there is no segmentation or a fence of language for creativity. Cinema has no language,'' he said.