Courtesy: IndiaFM
Friday, July 01, 2005

Very few people have the courage to back a story like that of Matrubhoomi...Punkej Kharbanda has it. Being his maiden venture in production Punkej doesn't care about the monetary benefits anymore. It's been over two years; the film has travelled, received accolades, but is yet to release in India, this doesn't deter him from standing rock solid with the film. Here he speaks about the film, his expectations and his experiences.

This is your maiden venture in film production, what about the film gripped you so much?
I think first and foremost about the script. When Manish came to me he gave me the script it took me about 2 hours time to read it and once I had read it I knew I had to make this film. The script was brilliant and rarely do people come with such scripts to producers.

The film has been ready and has been traveling what is taking so long for its release in India?
The first six months, we were busy taking the film all over the world to various film festivals and then we came down to releasing the film out here and in France. In France the theatres are booked 5-6 months in advance. So by the time they could manage to get a booking was sometime in January this year. So that's why the release got delayed. Secondly to get theatre out here to release such a bold film is not that easy because it's a non-starcast film and it hits you. It evokes a reaction in you and as a producer you always want to play it safe to try and raise up enough money at the time of release so that you are in the safety net. But it takes time to realize that it won't happen and you will have to put in more to release the film.

The film has released in France...how was the response?
It released in France in January it did well and a lot of papers there had called it the film of the month and it ran there for over 8 weeks, which in Paris is quite a lot for a small budget Hindi film.

What are your expectations from the Indian audiences?
Now is the time for rewards...isn't it? Our expectations are that people today want to see good cinema irrespective of the star cast but it can only happen once we endeavor in marketing it correctly, so that's what we are trying to do and eventually we have decided to come out with different versions and different languages so that it can reach smaller sections as well. Otherwise this film will get restricted to the multiplexes and cities. I am sure the rewards will follow.

This film has been dubbed in multiple languages. Any particular reason?
For a Hindi film six languages is the first time, not every film can be dubbed that way; it should look good even after the dubbing. Fortunately this film had the subject and also it was shot that way that it could be dubbed and people can identify with it. It deals with a problem that is not restricted to only one part of India, it prevails all over India.

What was your reaction after you saw the film?
It is supposed to slap you in the face and it does just that. I think we needed this slap on our face. For umpteen number of years we have been discussing how the tiger population has been decreasing in this country. But nobody realizes that the female population of our country is diminishing. 32 Million women have already gone and how many more? When will we realize this, so we needed this slap on our face and that's what the film does.

How has the experience as a whole been?
This was my first project as a producer and when I read the script, I knew this is the film I would like to make and it was something that I will be proud of right till the end. Hardships are enough for making these kinds of films but they are a learning experience and there is a lot that this film has taught us over the period of one and a half year and till we make something more significant this will always be something that we are very proud of

Matrubhooomi - Movie Stills

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