Chasing tough stories

Director Aditya Suhas Jambhale, known for his Article 370, speaks about telling stories that matter

- Rajiv Vijayakar

Aditya Suhas Jambhale hails from Goa, the only child of two dental surgeons, who chose to ‘extract’ a career in engineering before ‘implanting himself on stage, short films and cinema. At a passionate 33, he is a two-time National Award-winner for his Marathi shorts, Aaba...Aiktaay Na? (for Best Direction) and Kharvas (for Best Film).

Before this, he’s been an actor and stage writer-direc-tor for 10 years, carving a distinguished career and winning state awards for Nat-SMRT, Are Manasa Manasa and Final Verdict and staging the maha-naatak (mega-drama), Vande Mataram.

From here to making Hindi films, his journey has been fascinating.

Excerpts from the interview:

Why did you not venture into Marathi cinema?

I have always liked to have the maximum audience. Laxman Utekar (Chhaava) advised that I should first establish myself in Hindi, then do whatever else I wanted. This was in sync with my wanting to leave my comfort zone. Also, the feedback I got from my Vande Mataram actors was that my style of treatment was best suited for Hindi cinema.

But your first non-Marathi film was in Punjabi!

Kharvas was selected for Cannes, where I met an NRI, Sarab Zavaleta, who narrated a story about her stationmaster father, who during Partition, shrewdly saved lives of many Muslims. I told her I will definitely make a short film, as there was no budget for a full-length feature. That became Amritsar Junction, completely shot in Goa with Manav Vij playing her father’s role and Dhairya Karva. Dhairya was in the cast of URI—The Surgical Strike and he mentioned my film to Aditya Dhar.

Was that how the association with Aditya Dhar began?

At the National Award ceremony, where URI.. and Kharvas both won, I met Aditya, who expressed his wish to watch