We Need To Create A Separate Market For Indie Films In Tamil: 'Mankhurd' Director Praveen Giri

In the streets of Mankhurd, a suburb in Mumbai, unfolds a tale on a Muslim father and daughter — Muhammad and Nisha — who are wrongfully accused of a crime and get entangled in larger politics. This affecting story about power is what is explored in Praveen Giri’s debut feature Mankhurd, which will get its World Premiere at the Chennai International Film Festival on December 19. Praveen says, “Every filmmaker’s primary goal while making a film is to tell a story. Mankhurd begins with the tagline “Sithaandathin Thinipe Theeviravaatham (Terrorism is merely an imposition of an ideology)” We want this understanding to reach many people.”

Praveen and his team (which includes Ramachandran Ravi, Barathy Kolappan and Ramakaushalyan) launched their own production house “Unchained Pictures” to fund their first feature. So while making Mankhurd, the team also wanted to ensure they got their marketing and promotion strategies right. One of their first steps was to submit their short film Nightingales in the Cocoon (2023) at the Jio MAMI Film Festival. “This was so that we get a chance to promote our feature film,” Praveen notes. And when the short won the Gold award, it gave them a reach much bigger than they imagined. 

In this interview with Film Companion, Praveen speaks about the award, why he wanted to become an indie filmmaker, the need for an indie market in Tamil cinema and more. 

How important are awards for an Indie filmmaker?

When I went to MAMI, I got to meet many artists, festival directors and filmmakers. It helps you network with so many people. For instance, we met the festival director of the Cannes Film Festival at MAMI and showed the trailer of Mankhurd. He told us to submit our film to Cannes and also waived our registration fee. For the premiere of Mankhurd, we were able to invite Lokesh Kanagaraj, Pa Ranjith, Sudha Kongara and others. Winning the award was an advantage which helped us meet so many people. It will also help the films we'll back under our production house in the future as well. Even if I have to approach media for interviews, this award is what helps me get noticed. 

Why did you choose to become an independent filmmaker?

In today’s scenario, there is a certain demand the market creates. If I have to make a film that satisfies the market and several others, I might have to include a few things. But I feel I can tell the story without such hurdles through the indie space. I wanted my feature film to be a story that I could tell this world. 

Tell us about Mankhurd. Is it based on a real event?

Mankhurd is about the ideological circle within which we are boxed into and it tells the story of two minorities. It is about two Tamil migrants who live there, so it is a multilingual feature and the characters speak in Tamil, Marathi and Hindi. When PS Vinothraj’s Koozhangal (Pebbles) was played in other countries, it was new and intriguing for them to see our food, soil and others. So Mankhurd is rooted in Mumbai city and its suburb's politics. It is inspired by real events, but there is also a layer of fiction in it. For instance, at the Mankhurd railway station, there is no West Exit and we show that in the film. It is a place where autos are the only means of transportation and there is no other public transport. We all a visual idea of how Mumbai looks but Mankhurd is a place that even people in the city might not know about.

You have produced the film under your production house, Unchained Pictures. How did you plan the whole shooting process for Mankhurd?

Since we did a lot of short films, it helped us massively with our pre-production process and managing schedules. We took three to four months to write, and another three months for pre-production. Since we are investing, we wanted to structure the schedule in a way we could shoot quality footage but also manage to wrap the shoot quickly with fewer resources. So we took our time to get all the pre-production work done. None of the actors you see in the film are full-time professionals. We got a dentist, a dance instructor and people from other professions to act. It was a sync sound production as well, so we did a lot of rehearsals for close to two months to get it all right. 

Mankhurd has scenes of police interrogation. For a film that revolves around a social issue, is portrayal of violence an automatic necessity?

In films like Mankhurd, it becomes important to show violence that happens in police interrogations. But it depends on how you show it. It shouldn’t be gory. Paakaravangula mogam sulika vekka koodaathu. But there is a need to show the violence based on what the story demands. There are two kinds of violence portrayed in films. For instance, when you take Vikram (2022) or Jailer (2023), they are mass action films where violence is handled cleverly, beautified and made aesthetic. But when you show it realistically, the violence hits very hard and you find it difficult to watch.

Another thing I noticed in the film was how the ratios kept changing — the frames shrink as we enter the interrogation scenes, for instance. 

The ratio change was intentional. In the beginning, a few kids run inside a circle drawn on the playground. During that time, the ratio changes from 2.35:1 to 4:3; it shrinks to show how people are stuck in one ideological circle. The ratio then changes back to normal. But when the interrogation begins, it shrinks again. Oru adanja feel kuduthuchu, it made us feel the suffocation. This was decided on the edit table because it gave us a feeling that we were stuck in a box.

Since you have produced this film, will you be able to benefit financially from it?

Even producers and distributors who have been in the business for a long time find it difficult. We have invested a certain amount to make this film and market it. But when we talk about the return, one is the recognition you get at festivals. But you can’t be sure about it. For instance, Vinoth Raj sent Koozhangal to Cannes, Berlin and other festivals. When it didn’t click anywhere, he waited for another year to send it to Rotterdam and his film won an award. We need that kind of time for the festival run. If OTTs come forward, it will massively change things. Independent films are made only using a few lakhs so it wouldn’t be a big thing for OTTs as well. So, only if we get the local distribution for Mankhurd, we will have a recovery. 

While we are on the topic of a local release, Pebbles, which was India’s Oscar entry for 2021, couldn’t get a theatrical release and dropped on SonyLIV. How do you look at this?

I even met with Vinothraj and he told me that only when such films keep coming once at least every three months, a market will open for indie and parallel films. There are certain guidelines for theatre release because of the existing market. So, instead of indie films trying to fit into the existing one, I think we have to create a separate market. If you look at the Malayalam industry, they have both commercial films and indie films releasing regularly. In a few other industries, even big stars are willing to do small films like Mammootty's Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakam (2023). So that’s what we have to strive for in the Tamil cinema space.