'Independent vs commercial cinema is an outdated narrative'

Director Raam Reddy, actors Tillotama Shome and Deepak Dobriyal discuss their film, Jugnuma, working with a 16mm film camera, why Raam doesn't feel Jugnuma is an arthouse film, and more

- SHREYAS PANDE

Making a comeback almost a decade after his National Award-winning debut film, Thithi, director Raam Reddy feels that his sophomore feature, Jugnuma, is more personal. It tells the story of an orchard owner living with his family in the Himalayas in the 1980s. While recounting a tender, intimate, and nostalgic tale, the film adds a touch of magical realism. A scene in the trailer shows a man with wings jumping off a cliff and flying in the sky. "I wanted to tell a suspenseful, mysterious story with magical elements," says Raam, adding that it bothered him to see magical realism as a thriving genre in just literature. "People sit in a room and write what they want. Whereas in cinema, it is a bit more complicated as you have to convince an ecosystem to believe in a particular dream. I wanted to fight for that dream, and that's why I took this leap," he says.