<img style="float: left;" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2024/feb/Rahul-op_e.jpg" alt="Rahul Da Cunha" width="200" height="69" />Our film, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/mumbai-mulga-23335712" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Pune Highway</a>, is ready&mdash;ready to be enjoyed, ready to be examined, ready to be released &ldquo;into the ether&rdquo;, ready to entertain.
In the cinema, there is no such thing as an &ldquo;opening night&rdquo;&mdash; once a film is locked, that&rsquo;s it. The film waits in a can, on a hard drive, for the right moment to premi&egrave;re.
Screen is a far more complex business than the stage, it has many more moving parts&mdash; as Paul Anderson, director of &nbsp;There Will Be Blood, once famously said, only 40 per cent of movie-making is the actual making of the film. (The rest is selling, distribution, marketing).
Pune Highway comes very loosely out of a play I wrote twenty years ago. Plays focus on the verbal; Cinema, the visual. &ldquo;We have to open the story out considerably, tell the story as action, words are secondary&rdquo;, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/lobo-lobo-dissappears-23334564" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Bugs Bhargava Krishna</a>, my co-writer and co-director told me, as we FaceTimed our way, constructing the screenplay, bit by bit, beat by beat&mdash;the play&rsquo;s action was confined to a motel room, actors related to us events that happened outside this claustrophobic space&mdash;the movie traverses the worlds of South Mumbai and Satara, and the Mumbai-Pune highway that connects the two.
Last evening, Bugs and I settled down to watch our film, a year and half after we first put pen to paper&mdash;the last time, we would do so, just by ourselves.&nbsp;
We&rsquo;ve watched our movie, often&hellip; but each time the mind space is a little different.&nbsp;
We&rsquo;ve had many &ldquo;edit watches&rdquo;, the edit is where your story finally takes shape&mdash;you delete shots, shots that don&rsquo;t serve the story, don&rsquo;t further the plot, that don&rsquo;t strengthen character.
Tiny decisions are taken, hold that scene, slip in a close up to intensify an emotion. Do you need a wide shot to explain geography&hellip; have we told our story well, the visual is finally locked.&nbsp;
There&rsquo;s the &ldquo;Digital Imaging/Colour Correction watch&rdquo;.
Getting the colours, and tones correct&mdash;how do you <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/nats-goes-home-full-time-23333329" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">combine grunge with glam</a>, grime with grit&hellip; You want your film to have a certain look.
Then there&rsquo;s the critical &ldquo;background score watch&rdquo;&mdash;does your music heighten a moment&hellip; do you have recurring themes&hellip; leitmotifs? &nbsp;When do you resort to silence, is your music an additional unseen character? Is it melodic dialogue?
And this morning, as Bugs Bhargava and I sit down, I ask myself, where do I want my want my movie to be seen? In a darkened movie theatre with Dolby sound? In a drawing room? In a French festival? On a handset through headphones?&nbsp;
Dibakar Banerjee once asked me, &ldquo;How do you get a wide angle shot on an iPhone?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s the key to modern film making.
How do I want to release my first film, in the best possible way? Audiences want good content&hellip; sure, they want their stars&hellip; but today, they want their story&hellip;. They want a &ldquo;12th Fail&rdquo;&mdash;a story of struggle and the overcoming of a hurdle. No one quite has the winning formula, except the audience who know what they want&hellip; and they want to be gripped.
Do I want my film to reach the remotest part of India? Not necessarily, but I do want it to be remote control proof.
&ldquo;OTT or cinema release?&rdquo; I&rsquo;ve been asked.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m hoping both&hellip;. Though the film&rsquo;s resting place will be <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/the-comic-universe-of-amar-chitra-katha-23332137" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">ensconced in a streaming platform</a>.
As we watch Pune Highway, my debut film, and Bugs&rsquo;s fourth offering, do I have butterflies in the stomach...
Theatre vs cinema openings&hellip;. in the theatre, there&rsquo;s an opening night, it&rsquo;s the first night it all comes together, you have one shot at it, no guarantees, a mic may drop, your lead actor may have a sore throat, that opening night audience will sample your wares truly for the first time in one auditorium.
In the movies, there&rsquo;s no opening night in one solitary place&mdash;an audience will watch you once, twice , thrice, maybe see you over three sittings. &nbsp;
Is my film screen-worthy, OTT or festival&hellip; I&rsquo;d like to believe all three.
As I sit down to watch my film, there&rsquo;s just one truly controllable question one universal truth&mdash;do I love what I see?
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com
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I’m hoping both…. Though the film’s resting place will be ensconced in a streaming platform.

Please release me, let me go

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Please release me, let me go

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