Pan Nalin, director of ‘Chhello Show’ or ‘Last Film Show’, is no stranger to Goa. He always returns to his Goan home when he wants to focus on his writing and editing. Back for the International Film Festival of India, his film was screened last year and then headed to the Oscars as the Indian entry for the Best International Feature Film. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it to the final nominations. But it did give hope that the Oscar was within reach.
“When ‘Last Film Show’ was released it had already been to
many film festivals and we were not expecting something big to happen because
there were so many popular films which were front running. We were busy going
around, releasing the film and talking to people. We thought it was a practical
joke and then we couldn’t believe it,” says Pan Nalin, who now lives in South
Goa.
He adds, “The earlier days were difficult because we were
trolled a lot. People were upset that many popular films were not sent. When we
started showing our film, the love we got from the academy members was
incredible. We had many more screenings, new distributors came on broad and
then 2-3 months later, we got short listed. ‘Lagaan’ was the last Indian film
to be nominated for the Oscar in 2001. It was a great run and we left a mark
and instantly followed it up with the release. We had a great release in Japan
for 36 weeks, it is still playing in Australia, New Zealand, Italy and still
some releases are coming up in France and Belgium. We are planning a round in
Latin America. The film keeps springing back through word of mouth and keeps
growing through its natural growth.”
Speaking about how the audience is not looking for stories
from rural India, Pan explains the shift of viewership. “I think the era of
when people admired rural India is over. Now everything is on the Internet. People
are going to be moved by a good story. These days everyone is travelling a lot.
Now, so many films which are shot in Europe didn’t do well because people don’t
care anymore. The shift of cinema is towards a good story. The audience is
become very intelligent and nobody wants to waste three hours of their life,
unless you promise them really good entertainment,” he says.
The first idea for the story came in 2010-11. When Pan was
visiting his parents back home, they told me to visit his friend, who was much
older than him, and was in a bad shape. He was projectionist in a cinema hall.
“When I was a kid, I used to swap my lunch box for watching free movies. Now,
he was fired from him job because everything went digital and he didn’t know
how to make the transition. Then, I realised that there were two lakhs of
cinema employees who were completely forgotten and I was moved. In 2020, I
realised it would be ten years of celluloid disappearance. I had a lot of
childhood stories to add to my film experience and I felt there was a feel good
movie in it. That way I could pay homage to cinema and the disappearance of
celluloid,” reminisces Pan.
His connection to Goa goes back to his student days when he
was studying at graphic design at National Institute of Design. Goa Tourism had
asked NID to come and do a map of Goa, almost 25 years ago. “My teacher and
three students came to Goa and travelled to every spot of Goa to design the
map. We were hand drawing and cutting pasting the map. I loved everything about
Goa and I decided to come back to Goa. Ultimately, it needed money and cinema
was in Mumbai. I did three commercials and the first money I earned, I bought a
house in Moira, the only place I could afford. I was the only outsider in the
village.” He also shot his 2015 film ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ in Goa.
His next project is one project happening in Hollywood in
English and one is in Hindi as well here.