Hi all, Pari here. Well, for those who wanna know, here’s how we got around to make shadow.
The conception dates back a long time. We were still working on Clairvoyant at that time (for those who don’t know, keep this name in mind….You’re gonna see a lot of that in a lot of places 🙂 ). Hari (Srihari’s nickname) had come over at our place to discuss about something (we have such discussions a lot….not many fruitfull :D), I don’t exactly recall what. Hari told us about an idea that he had for a movie (Us here refers to me and Jit, living in the house where shadow was shot, as roomies)…
It all started then…The idea was good, a horror movie with a difference…Some guy lived in some apartment over a period of time…He was frustrated with his life…His only source of inspiration, the driving force of his life, was the girl he loved…The girl also left him….So most naturally, the presses CTRL+ALT+DLT of his life (in the moronic way : commits suicide)….Then years and several other tenants later, another guy comes to the same apartment….That guy also is going through the same things in life…That arouses philanthropy in the spirit of the deceased guy, and he tries helping….Well than the ghost to dost thing happens….
So we had a base plot…I had previously written a romantic song, which fitted in beautifully….Hari also had a name in mind – NIZHAL, which in tamil means shadow (the title of the movie NIZHAL was made even before i delivered the script :P)…Finally, however, neither of the three were used fully….
Hari left me with that, and the charge of dressing it up…Well, I wrote out a full script of it, and handed it to Hari…But by that time, the plot had morphed beyond recognition….I put my own imagination into it (which had the attributes of a plastic surgery), and the output had just the basis of ghost to dost….Hari found it good (but for some parts, for which had hearty arguments over coffees and phone calls) and we got down to planning the movie….
That was a 44 page long script, planned for about an hour of runtime….We started with Arpita Soumo Me and Chhak (Avishek) playing out the characters….A trailer was also released….You can still see it in youtube…But then problems started coming from various sides….Arpita left the job and went to Delhi, we went to our hometown for a week or so, Hari started the process of changing his job, Chhak got his Saturdays and Sundays booked with CAT coaching classes, etc etc….So the project got shelved….I used the time to enrich the script, and changed the flow of the narrative, added several other characters, making it ready for a full length feature film….Then again we decided on the casting, and got to shooting….The shooting again got disrupted as the actors were not available at important times, and a crucial character’s casting remained undecided…..Naturally, the project again got shelved, while we were looking for people to cast….
After 4 months of futile searching, scheduling and rescheduling meets, Hari’s fuse got tripped….He put his foot down, that we gotta complete it with whatever resources we have….So i got to writing the script again, keeping in mind the shots we had already taken, and the resources we had….The story got completely changed, and shortened a great deal….We had 2 more weekends of shoot, and then the post production started….And what came out is what you people have seen!!
PS:I didn’t shed light on the longer original script that I had penned, for the sole purpose that, I still hope someday we are gonna make that as a full length feature film….Its hope that keeps you going, after all….. 🙂
SHADOW 