Nikhil Kulkarni

You’ll know what I’m talking about if you have been involved in any form of film-making. For those of you who haven’t, you will perhaps understand what I’m saying in about 20 minutes after watching the two videos below. Add a minute or two to read what I’ve written before the videos!

These videos are about the making of Udaan. Clichéd, I know, but if you still haven’t watched this movie, you have missed something truly wonderful. However, I am certain you will not be left with any reason not to watch Udaan after watching the videos of the making of the film. And be sure to listen to the music, the entire album. If you have already, you would love to get lost in Udaan’s music. When it is Amit Trivedi*, no doubt one expects the music to be nothing but top notch. But for me, it is Amitabh Bhattacharya who really scores with this lyrics. Haven’t heard anything as powerful as this for a long time –

[Here is the meaning]

No doubt Udaan is an excellent film in all aspects, but it is the passion, the motivation and the perseverance of the people behind it that makes it all the more special. It is truly inspiring Vikramditya Motwane carried and protected his dream for seven years even after failing to find producers and never compromised on his vision for the movie. (Read interview on Live Mint). Anurag Kashyap and Sanjay Singh stand totally vindicated for supporting Vikramaditya as Udaan has now turned profitable. In fact, the commercial success of Udaan, Tere Bin Laden (reminder – watch it soon), LSD and some earlier films like Aamir and A Wednesday augurs really well for the small budget films. Hope that this spurs more producers to support directors/writers with good scripts.

This one moment would have made all the effort worth it –

Vikramaditya is on the extreme left. That is mighty satisfactory smile! Compare that to how intense and focused he was during the making of Udaan. There’s never as pleasing an experience as having people believe in your dream, your dream then coming true and you being acknowledged for it.

I’ll leave you with the two videos of Making of Udaan – Realizaton of Dreams. These making of videos are very different from the regular Bollywood ones. Watch them to know why they’re different and how that difference makes them all the more inspirational.

Go fly!

Realisation Of Dreams – Making of Udaan – Part 1

Realisation Of Dreams – Making of Udaan – Part 2

So, when are you making your film?

It seems like some past life, but the time I spent in making the documentary while at PlanetRead (embedded below), was definitely life-changing in more ways than one.

Maybe it’s time to bring film-making back into this life!

* Good things do happen in life. Like Amit Trivedi winning the National Award for Best Music Direction for Dev D. Go, Amit! Immensely happy that Cheteshwar Pujara is finally in the Indian test team and has done well on debut. No doubt he still has a long way to go, but I am sure he will live up to expectations that people have of him. I, for one, expect a lot from him in the coming years.