I'm Suprised Gaami Worked For Audiences: Vidyadhar Kagita

Gaami, the indie film 6 years in the making, was released recently to positive reactions along with good financial returns from the box office.

Speaking about the reactions to the film, Vidyadhar says, "I had low expectations from the film. That is the reason I went for crowdfunding because I thought this was a movie for a small audience but we believed that this audience would appreciate it intensely. We didn’t have many calculations before, and that is why we were able to put out something like this. Throughout the process everyone was sceptical. On paper, Gaami can’t work. It can’t work commercially because it does not fit into any template. This is why I am still surprised that Gaami worked for audiences. This is a film that I would want to watch in the theatre and that hope is what drove us forward."

Vidyadhar describes the editing of the film as the toughest aspect of the entire film, “We had multiple cuts of the film. It started with a 5-hour rush. Then we had a 3-hour 15-minute cut, which was bad. Then another 3-hour cut, which was also bad. I would even say the current cut is also bad because after a point, one loses objectivity. One day you look at a scene and feel it's really good and the next day it looks like nothing is working in that scene. It is a very up-and-down process.

Speaking about how he and his editor Raghavendra Thirun, the filmmaker adds, "There were several points in the film where the three parallel tracks were not working. Then we started grouping. We linked these tracks by similar emotions and this gave it more cohesiveness.”

One of the storylines in the film involves an experimental lab where humans are used as lab rats, while explaining the design of this place, “With the lab, I wanted to create an eerie uncomfortable feeling. It is an exaggerated version of my own hostel life. We took a godown for lease and created everything from scratch. The wall textures and dust on it were handmade. Even the colour of the walls…I have a lot against our education system. Our education system is not something which we should be proud of. We don’t nurture creativity or critical thinking or simple life skills, like how to have a conversation or how to listen. If we teach a kid how to problem solve, how to be empathetic and give them a proper moral compass, imagine how that generation would look like. I feel like all we do currently is brainwashing and that is what I wanted to represent from all those experiments on the kid in the film.” 

Despite the film’s box office success the film also received some mixed reactions, “I have to accept some flaws in the film, some might be because of the budget and some might be because of the writing. But no film should use the budget as an excuse, because you as a filmmaker chose to make the film. People should not appreciate a film using the budget as a wild card. The film should be only appreciated for the writing and everything else that went into it. I don’t wanna redo or remake the film again now because I believe that every film represents that filmmakers skill and perspectives at that point in time. If you keep redoing things then you can make this film for another 10 years.”