Pan Nalin on finding inspiration from his childhood and the making of Chhello Show–India’s Oscar entry

Recently having released in India, the film pays tribute to many filmmakers who have inspired Nalin over the years

When Pan Nalin’s Chhello Show was declared as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards this year, it sparked a lot of debate on social media. While there were some who were angry about the film’s selection over hot favourites such as RRR and Kashmir Files, there was also some chatter about the Gujarati language film (also called The Last Film Show), about a group of kids who discover the magic of cinema, to be a copy of the Italian film Cinema Paradiso. 

However, Nalin isn’t bothered by such allegations. “Look at the number of prestigious distributors attached to it. Look at the prestigious awards that it has received. All these allegations are baseless and I don’t want to give any attention to them,” is his simple answer to those who question him. The director–known for films such as Samsara, Valley of Flowers and Angry Indian Goddesses–spoke about the challenges of making the film during the pandemic and how close it is to his own childhood. 

Did the announcement take you by surprise? 

We have been showing the film for about a year now. It had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and was shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival in California where it won the Audience Award. Our US distributors Samuel Goldwyn Films were the first ones to openly state in the media that they were acquiring the film because they knew the American audiences would love it. They were hopeful that India would send the movie to the Oscars because they believed it was a strong contender. Knowing the complexity of the selection process, and being a country with such a vast film industry, I didn’t even get my hopes up. Since July, we have been showing the film around to build up to our October release in India. During the process, a circular came out that every movie that could not be released prior to December 2021 could be submitted to the Film Federation of India, and even though there was a lot of buzz about several other big movies, our producers said we should submit our film. 

Honestly, we were so busy showing the film and preparing for the release that it came as a total surprise to me to know that all 17 members voted for it. These are filmmakers, cinematographers and editors from different fields of life who have collectively won so many national awards. It was a ‘wow’ moment for me and I just couldn’t believe it. I must have done something right in the 20 years of my career. 

Unlike your other movies, this one was made during the pandemic. What were some of the unique challenges it presented?

We started shooting before the pandemic and the post-production was done during the pandemic. I think the biggest challenge was with the post-production process. I usually enjoy editing, mixing, music and sound design because it’s just us recreating the magic of cinema. When the pandemic happened, there was no motivation for me or my team–we were asking ourselves why we are doing this. There was death everywhere; the vaccine was yet to arrive. Cinema just didn’t really matter to me. It was a pretty dark phase to go through. A number of my favourite cinema halls across the world were either shutting down or being permanently sold off. Festivals were going virtual. The cinema halls, as a theme, is central to Chhello Show and the desire was to take it to cinemas.

Around June-July, the Tribeca Film Festival declared that they would  be the first ones to host an in-person festival after one-and-a-half years and that they would give us the Spotlight section and the opening film. That’s when we were motivated to mix and dub and get back to post-production. That one show helped us a lot because of the Audience Award. The BBC did an exclusive five-minute story on us and suddenly everyone knew about the film and distributors came forward to buy it. We came back and finished the film and were hoping to release it in December last year but COVID-19 was still around and cinema halls were shut. 

The film is semi-autobiographical. How close does it come to your life? 

The film is set in 2010 but a lot of my insights as a kid are part of it. A big part of the film is based on a friend of mine, a projectionist who lost his job in 2011 when most of the cinema halls went digital. Lakhs of people lost their jobs at the time. 

Other than that, you see my school in the film. The metre gauge railway is the same. You see Galaxy cinema, which, in reality, was Kalapi, where I had seen my first film as a child. It was shut for about 20-25 years and we reopened and refurbished it to shoot the movie. There are a lot of anecdotes about me from within the family and friends. My family still lives in Gujarat. They say they are not surprised that I started making films because as a kid, I used to line up matchboxes and tell stories. Another common story was about me and a group of kids who were given the job of catching pigeons from the false ceiling of the cinema hall and the manager letting us watch films for free. We have also stolen reels from the railway parcel room and gotten into police trouble. As kids, we also turned a room into a pinhole camera, the way they do in the railway bogie in the movie. It was just playfulness for us. I didn’t know how movies were made. It was a very innocent approach and when you have that kind of ignorance, you don’t have any fear–there was no fear of failing. It’s a bit like our tagline–when you have nothing, nothing can stop you.

Bhavin Rabari as Samay is a wonderful find. Tell us about the process of casting for the film. 

We started auditioning Gujarati-speaking child actors in Mumbai and Ahmedabad but the children who are professional actors had either done too many reality shows on television or commercials. The casting wasn’t working for me, and so we changed our strategy. The casting directors started visiting the interiors of Kathiawar where kids rarely go to the cinema. After nearly 3,000 auditions, we selected 40-50 kids and brought them to our production base near Sasan Gir. From day one, Bhavin stood out and at the end of the retreat, we had our group of kids from Chalala. We followed that up with a month-and-a-half-long retreat with them to make them feel comfortable in front of the camera. All of them were innately talented. They were taking direction instructions better than many professional actors I have worked with. I was totally blown away by the talent. 

You have mentioned that the movie is your tribute to the Lumiere brothers. Who are the other filmmakers who have inspired you and who have found their way in the movie? 

As a kid, I only saw mainstream Hindi cinema and very few Gujarati films. I didn’t even know about the existence of Hollywood films. I discovered them only when I came to study at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. Soon after, I joined the film club and discovered world cinema. I discovered German Expressionism and French New Wave. I was a huge film buff. I would be watching Robert Bresson in the evening and watching an Amitabh Bachchan or Rajinikanth film the next morning, or a small, silent film the next day and a Maya Deren surrealism film the same evening. It’s not as if I enjoyed a Manmohan Desai movie less than a Tarkovsky–I enjoyed them all! 

It’s hard to pinpoint the conscious and subconscious influences, but I knew that this is probably my last chance to talk about some of the filmmakers who have given so much to my life and enriched my cinema experience. You can just come and watch the innocent story of Samay, the boy who falls in love with cinema, but if you’re a film buff, you can literally go Easter-egg hunting! So there are certain tributes–some are subtle while the others are pretty obvious. 

You have not made many feature films. What is the starting point for you to embark on one? 

I like doing non-fiction. I have made documentaries and short films. During the pandemic, we made a six-minute short film called The Tiniest Invisible Piece of Shit which is available on YouTube. I would like to make more films, but given the kind of cinema I do, I am usually a solo warrior. I have to go and raise money for the film and then sell it. I have made 7-8 feature films so far. If there was a way, I would definitely do one or two films a year. I have no shortage of scripts or stories–I just don’t want to make a film which is not seen anywhere. 

You have grown up on masala, mainstream films. Do you think you would ever make one yourself? 

I have never differentiated between masala, indie or art house cinema. I don’t want to make one more movie which everyone is making. Each movie takes a year or two of your life, so I don’t want to waste my time. Now, film stars are opening up their minds and so are studios; they are paying attention to filmmakers like me. I have many scripts which are mainstream but they need big budgets. 

Now that I have a big enough body of work, I could probably do a mainstream movie and still take a risk and do something cinematic. I love musicals. I would love to do songs but when I hear songs these days, they put me off. I’m wondering if I can do something new. Even within mainstream cinema, there are directors like Manmohan Desai who did amazing films such as Amar Akbar Anthony. I always wondered how he could think of such an idea! I feel if I had to do something, I have to at least scale up to the level of Pakeezah or Mughal-e-Azam or Amar Akbar Anthony.

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