Watched ‘Masoom’ while making ‘Gulmohar’: Rahul V Chittella

Berlin, Jan 12 (PTI) “Gulmohar” director Rahul V Chittella says he watched Shekhar Kapur’s “Masoom” along with his cinematographer Eeshit Narain when they were shooting for their National Award-winning film.

The filmmaker was speaking at the red carpet event of the Indian Film Festival Germany in Berlin where “Gulmohar” was screened along with “Masoom”.

Chittella said the 1983 family drama “Masoom” served as a source of inspiration for 2023’s “Gulmohar”, which marked his directorial debut.  

  “… ‘Masoom’ has been such an inspiration for us for many years. It was one of those films that my DOP (director of photography) and I were watching constantly when we were shooting ‘Gulmohar’,” he said.

In “Gulmohar”, Chittela explored different points of view across three generations of the Batra family who are set to move out of their 34-year-old home named ‘Gulmohar’, which draws its title from the ornamental tree with orange-red flowers. It starred Sharmila Tagore, Manoj Bajpayee, and Simran.

“Masoom”, which was Kapur’s directorial debut, followed a happily married couple — played by Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi — whose lives are upended when the husband’s illegitimate son (Jugal Hansraj) from a past affair enters their home.

Chittella also shared that he gave a hat-tip to “Masoom” in “Gulmohar”.

“There’s a little trivia. Manoj’s (character’s) wife (essayed by Simran) is called Indu because of the Indu (played by Azmi) in ‘Masoom’,” he revealed.

In 2024, “Gulmohar” won three National Film Awards — Best Feature Film in Hindi, Best Screenplay (Dialogues) for Arpita Mukherjee and Chittella, and a Special Mention (feature film) for Bajpayee.

Chittella said the aim with the film, which premiered on Disney+ Hotstar, was to tell the stories of three generations living together in a contemporary scenario.

“Like now where you are becoming more distant from each other and the only thing that holds you together is your own people so that was the inception. Then people got attached, the actors got attached, my crew got attached and we sat out to tell the story and it only showered love to us ever since we have presented it to the world,” he said.

“All actors were so honest with their performance because I don’t think they were acting beyond the point. They were just being themselves in front of the screen, which was lovely… The best that the director could ask for,” he added.

The Indian Film Festival Germany, which began on Friday, screened around 40 films including Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “All We Imagine As Light”, Boman Irani’s directorial debut “The Mehta Boys”, debutante Shuchi Talati’s acclaimed movie “Girls Will Be Girls”, and “Berlin”, directed by Atul Sabharwal.

Organised by the Embassy of India, Berlin and The Tagore Centre, the gala will conclude on Sunday.