THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Eminent Marathi writer Bhalchandra Nemade said instead of taking a highway, you should take a walkway which means it is always better to take small steps rather than taking a bigger one. This, I believe is the reason for my success,” said Akshay Indikar, a Marathi filmmaker. Akshay is in the city as part of the 25th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). His film ‘Sthalpuran - Chronicle of Space ‘ is being screened at the festival in the International competition category.
Brought up in Solapur, Akshay moved to Pune when he was 15. “I have always been fascinated by the theme of migration. Having moved to a city, I was finding it difficult to cope with the life and culture there. I belong to the Gondhali nomadic tribe in Karnataka and my ancestors were storytellers and worshippers of Goddess Tulja Bhavani. They used to travel and narrate folk tales which included mythology,” he said.
Speaking about his film journey, Akshay mentioned that he started doing short films based on various witty narratives. “It was after attending a film festival held in Pune that I ventured into the art of filmmaking. I wanted to do theatre but had to eventually drop it as I felt that it was kind of dividing people instead of binding them. After researching films, I initially made a docu-fiction film on the life of Marathi writer Bhalchandra Nemade which got good reception and was screened in many places,” he added.
After this, Akshay made his debut feature film ‘ Trijya’.
The film is about a 25-year-old poet who embarks on a journey to find solace and also a space for himself. The story revolves around the various characters he meets during his journey. The film was premiered at the Shanghai Internatinal Film Festival and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and recently at the Berlin International Film Festival.
His second film ‘Sthalpuran - Chronicle of Space’ which is about the diary entry of the bespectacled eight-year-old geeky boy, the protagonist in the film. “All my films have been inspired from my own experiences and my stay in Pune,” he quipped. The film recently bagged the prestigious ‘ Young Cinema Award’ by Asia Pacific Screen Academy.
Similarly, nature forms an integral part of the filmmaker’s cinema. “Cinema is about combining all entities in nature. So in every film, I try to connect nature with the characters and how a character finds he/her relationship with nature. In my film Trijya, water is an element that unites everyone. I have tried to incorporate the rain and thunder and the roaring sea to explain the situation of the family in the film and their emotions, said Akshay.
The filmmaker is also on a mission to explore the oral folk traditions and is working on a documentary on Vedic Lavani, a spiritual form of Lavani, different from the erotic one. Apart from this, Akshay is working on a feature film titled ‘Construction’ which will explore the love story of an archaeologist and architect.