Filmmaker Dinesh Shenoy was shooting on St Mark’s Road on Friday when he got the news that the editor of his film Madhyantara is to be honoured for best editing in a non-feature section at the 70th National Film Awards. He immediately called Suresh Urs to share the news. A few minutes later, he got a call from Urs and this time, Shenoy was being congratulated. Initially puzzled, Shenoy later realised that his short had also won big – The best debut film of a director award.
Having been an ad and corporate filmmaker since his late 20s, Shenoy took a turn towards cinema in his 50s with Madhyantara. But he reveals that it was never supposed to be a short film. “I actually wanted to make a feature-length film. I have been doing ad and corporate films and made this short film as a different way to pitch my idea to producers, more like to convince them that I could work with a feature-film format,” shares the 56-year-old, adding that getting a National Film Award for his effort was never really on his mind. “I hadn’t imagined this [winning] in my wildest dreams,” he says. However, he still hopes he can turn it into a feature film when he finds a producer who believes in the project.
Set in Bengaluru of the ’80s, Madhyantara, which translates to intermission, is the director’s ode to Kannada movies and the people who work passionately on them. The genesis of the story began during the Covid-induced lockdown when Shenoy came across interviews with technicians and a producer who worked in the Kannada film industry.
“What was fascinating about the interview was they were talking about the movie which I had watched during my childhood. In one of the interviews, a producer revealed a story where he and his best friend shared a single movie ticket, where one watched the movie from the beginning to interval and the other watched the second half,” says Shenoy, whose eureka moment was right then, leading him to create his main characters, Raja and Kumara.
The film follows two friends with a deep passion for movies and their journey to become filmmakers. The film uses understated humour with a lot of the plot being inspired by Shenoy’s own experience with filmmaking. “I studied cinematography but when I ventured into filmmaking, I could not find my footing. I didn’t get a job immediately so I started my career as a light boy, just like my characters, Raja and Kumara in the films,” Shenoy shares.
With homages to Kannada superstars Dr Rajkumar and Ambareesh, the short is also a treat to cinephiles and enthusiasts of regional cinema. “It was important to get the costume and hairstyle right. I got in touch with a photographer friend who had categorised his shoots from different eras. That became the base of most of the looks,” says Shenoy.
Shenoy is quite happy that his film is sharing the spotlight with films like Kantara and KGF: Chapter 2 . “You hear a lot about feature films. But when a film like Madhyantara wins, which people hardly know about, that feeling is something else,” says Shenoy.
source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)