NEW DELHI: Woh Bhi Din The, starring Ashvin Matthew, Rohit Saraf, Adarsh Gourav, and Sanjana Sanghi, was shot almost a decade ago. Needless to say, the actors didn’t have any expectations about the release, till a few weeks ago when they got the news that the movie had finally got a release date. The movie is currently streaming on ZEE5.
Bengaluru-based actor Matthew reveals the news was a pleasant surprise for all of them. He plays the character of Alex Matthew, the class teacher and English teacher in this teen drama. It’s a bunch of mixed emotions for him to see his performance from 10 years ago. “I would play it more naturally now. I wouldn’t have to do much ‘acting’ because I am now at the age of the character,” he quips.
If Alex Matthew reminds you of Father Vincent, his character from English Vinglish (2012), then the actor says there is nothing uncanny about it. “I got a call for this character because of English Vinglish. For my audition, I recited a poem and explained some lines from it,” he says about the movie that was shot in Jamshedpur.
The beauty of a well-made high-school drama is that it teleports you to your growing years. “What I identified with the film was the fact that these kids had good teachers like I did, which really changed my life,” says Matthew.
Helmed by Sajid Ali, the brother of acclaimed director Imtiaz Ali, and produced by actor-producer John Abraham, the film is being received quite well by the audience. The fact that the film still faced the hurdle of finding a platform to be released speaks a lot about how the movie business works. “The reason why John Abraham didn’t sell the film is because he didn’t get the money that he wanted and no one believed in it.
So he just shelved it. He knew that it was just a matter of time because some of the kids would become famous and there would be a market for it sometime in the future. Seems to have paid off,” says Matthew, adding, “Even I’m doing the same thing now. The movie that I directed is a feminist thriller and a lot of distributors don’t believe that the audiences want to watch a film that has heroines and no heroes. But it’s a question of finding that one person who believes in you and is ready to take a chance.”
Matthew points out the problem is never viewers since ‘there’s always an audience for any kind of movie’. “The problem has always been the gatekeepers, the distributors, or those who take the decisions. For the longest time, they’ve been buying Rs 250-crore action movies which flop. They offer Rs 40 lakh and Rs 2 crore for the smaller films because they think bigger ones will make more money for them.
When those flop, they change their attitude,” says Matthew, adding that he could see the change in attitude of people towards regional cinema. However, the change is not free of biases. “Now finally, they’re going towards content-driven films, but then again, they’re choosing specific languages. ‘Oh, Kannada... not required, Malayalam maybe...’. The people who make the decisions also have to evolve,” he signs off.