We had the opportunity to have a chat with Aditya Kripalani. The Author, Musician and Filmmaker shared everything about his upcoming movie Not Today.
Creativity always finds its way. No matter what a man may choose to pursue, he who has tasted the creativity will always want to be part of it. Indian filmmaker and author Aditya Kripalani and his work state just that. Aditya belongs to Mumbai and had a flair in creative writing since childhood.
An FTII graduate, a successful author, musician and a passionate filmmaker. As a young teen, Aditya Kriplani displayed a keen interest in the creative fields, especially with regards to writing and film-making. He first book was Back Seat at the age of 26 and soon released a sequel to the book. The first book made it to being 10th at ‘Hollywood Book Festival’ in 2009 among 300 other titles. Aditya debuted as a filmmaker with the adaptation of his own book Tikli And Laxmi Bomb, that is available on Netflix. The filmmaker in a recent chat, shared about his upcoming movie Not Today. The movie talks about one of the most crucial and important issues that need attention, suicide prevention. Actor Harsh Chhaya will feature in the movie along with Rucha Inamdar from the hit web series Criminal Justice.
Here's all that Aditya Kripalani had to share with us:
Can you talk about everything that went into making your upcoming movie "Not Today"?
"It was a challenging film only because we had one character atop a terrace about to jump and one character in a suicide centre who then moves around the city. And I wanted it to be shot live. To not shoot one actor than the other on different days. So we had to find terraces in each area of Mumbai that matched the original one. And then shoot Harsh, the man on the terrace at all those terraces, while Rucha the girl from the centre was shooting down close by right there. We also did a 32-minute take continuously. And did 40 takes of that.
On the film that has ended up as a 17-minute section. Again this was done to keep the performances natural and riffing off each other. As three cameras were down in the centre, in the same building and one was up on the terrace of the same building and we rolled simultaneously. This included 6 actors. And it all had to work perfectly well and simultaneously."
Your movie talks about suicide prevention. How important is it to normalize the conversation around mental health, especially during these times?
"It is extremely important to normalize the conversation around mental health, especially around suicide. I think the biggest problem is that people who are feeling depressed don’t talk about it. So it is really important for us to start seeing the signs, which is why the idea of suicide prevention as a concept I think should be a lot more prevalent in India."
What can the audience look forward to from your movie 'Not Today'?
"What you can look forward to from the film is getting to know a lot more about suicide prevention…what you can look forward to from the film is really really nice performances because I think both actors have done a terrific job in the film and they are really natural performances. And you can look forward to a film that is shot all over Mumbai and really is another…..in some sense it is a Mumbai film the city is such a big part of the film as it has been of Tikli And Laxmi Bomb…..it’s like that. So these are all the things one can expect."
When did the shift from an Author to a Filmmaker happen?
"The shift happened from author to filmmaker I think when I felt that Tikli and Laxmi Bomb needed to be a film because I felt that that story and that message needed to reach a lot more people."
Your previous movies also talk about major issues that need to be addressed. How well do you think movies can help in starting conversations on major issues?
"I feel movies can help start conversations on the thing a lot more than anything else. Couple of reasons one is because very often we see movies together. The other thing is we always discuss films, even though films have now stopped being seen together because of OTT platforms. Our first conversation with anyone whether it is an Instagram live session or it is a zoom call or it is a phone call is which series are you seeing currently? So films are part of a very large part of our discussion in this country and so then they are of the best tools for conversation-starting."
Were you expecting all the recognition that came your way for your movies?
"I have never expected to let's say win a NETPAC for example because the other films in the competition were really like 20 million US dollars budget film and ours is like literally a fraction of it. Our cost as much as a…..you know a slightly luxury car. So, I never expected us to win accolades like that, but I always did believe that the film will connect with people very deeply and that nobody or very few people would ever watch my film and say, "Haan Theek Lagi". I’ve always expected that there will be very strong reactions to the cinema that we are making as a company...and that has always happened. I’ve always had very strong emotive, evocative reactions from people when they like the film they love it and when they don’t like it then they feel very strongly about not liking it and I like to remain in that zone always."
What can audiences expect from your next?
"Up next we have a film about a cinematographer who is also a woman and its journey as a cinematographer and the relationship that she shares with her new intern. The woman is about 48 years old and the intern is 24 and it’s their relationship on that film of a mentor and mentee as a cinematographer. So that’s the film we are going to shoot hopefully next February and then right after that, I hope to be able to make a movie called Father Son Father which is about 3 generations of men in the police force."
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