This will be the first big venture for city-based Shachi Sharma, daughter of former international badminton player Sanjay Sharma. In a couple of days her maiden film Time Out will be released – a nervous Shachi is making a foray into the big-time Bollywood with her fingers crossed. “It is the first film for all of us, including director Rikhil Bahadur. We are all nervous and excited,’’ she said.
Time Out was a short film made in 2011, featured at several film festivals, including Cannes. “We got inspired to make a full length movie. It was a good start for a 22-year-old but when we wanted help for the full length movie no one came forward,’’ she recalled.
The 25-year-old producer said they had lost all hope. “But Viacom liked the synopsis and in five minutes they agreed to finance us. It has been a fruitful journey for us. We made the film while they financed it,” she shared.
Time Out is about a 14 year-old boy and his relationship with his elder brother. “It is a very urban story and is for the youth who want to express themselves. The youngsters don’t have a voice. No one treats them properly. They believe in their goals. It is must watch for children and their parents,” Shachi asserted.
Talking about the lead characters she says,”One is played by Chirag Malhotra (Gaurav) and the other is played by Pranay Pachauri (Mihir). Both are newcomers. There are many other characters and ten children in the film.” Since the team had been working on the film for a long time “It was all enjoyable experience,” she said.
The way ahead
Shachi, who wrote the autobiography of England champion and National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, pointed out their next venture would be on Gopi. “Since I have written the biography, we thought of making our next film on Gopi,” she said adding that the experience of the first film would definitely help to make the second one even better. “We have learnt from past experiences and fresh thinking came into this project,” she said.
Biopic on cards
Talking about the biography Shachi said since the book has all the emotions, they would like to like touch the human chord on how Gopi rose to become an icon.
“We will look into his journey as a player and coach. There is a movie called “Rush” (English), I was impressed by that and I thought a biopic should be on those lines. I don’t want it to be slow and boring. It should be an entertainer and at same time it should touch the heart because it is a real story which is really inspiring.
There has never been a film on a badminton player and so the planning has to be very good in making this film. If you had to make a story on badminton, than it should be made on Gopi because the way he has risen. It is something which don’t see quite often.’’