`It’s difficult to get theatrical release`: Sabar Bonda director Rohan Kanawade

Faith over fear — this principle has guided filmmaker Rohan Kanawade up to this point. His maiden feature film, Sabar Bonda, won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema: Dramatic category at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Despite the win, the director wasn’t sure whether his romantic drama would be picked up for a theatrical release. Today, his faith in the movie has trumped his fear as actor and producer Rana Daggubati is bringing Sabar Bonda to theatres. “I didn’t know it would be this quick,” he chuckles.

“I know it’s very difficult to get a theatrical release nowadays. So many of my filmmaker friends have made their movies and they aren’t getting distribution. So, it was scary when we were making Sabar Bonda. But with all these people joining it, the release will be stronger,” he says, happy to have the support of filmmakers Vikramaditya Motwane, Nikkhil Advani, Nagraj Manjule, and actor Sai Tamhankar who have come on board as executive producers.

Rohan Kanawade 

Starring Bhushaan Manoj and Suraaj Suman, the Marathi movie revolves around Anand who falls in love with Balya when he visits his ancestral village during the mourning period of his father’s demise. With Kanawade giving us a tender queer romance, we ask him about the love stories that influenced him in his childhood. “My dad used to take us to watch films all the time. So, I used to watch all the Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, and Shah Rukh Khan films. I cried when I watched Kuch Kuch Hota Hai [1998],” 
he recalls. 

But if there was a film that aroused his curiosity about what goes on behind the camera, it was the Marathi classic, Maherchi Sadi (1991). “While all the women in the audience were crying for Alka Kubal’s character, I asked my father all about the projector and kept on looking at all those colourful rays coming out of it.” 

If the seeds of filmmaking were sown that day, they were further nurtured by Marathi filmmakers Jabbar Patel, Sumitra Bhave, and cinema legend Satyajit Ray, whose works Kanawade devoured. “I realised how differently you can tell stories. There is not only one way to tell a story — I saw that in films made by these filmmakers. Sometimes if you feel jealous of other filmmakers, it inspires you to push yourself.” Fear is another emotion he has come to terms with. “When you are writing something new, you have fears. But you have to force yourself to make what you want to.”

The forces behind the September 19 release

While (L-R) Rana Daggubati has produced the film, Nikkhil Advani, Vikramaditya Motwane, Sai Tamhankar, and Nagraj Manjule serve as executive producers