Veteran actor Danny Dengzongpa, in Frozen, releasing in the first week of May, makes a living by selling home-made apricot jams in the picturesque mountains of Ladakh. Travelling to distant places to find customers, he fights factory-made products and the army camps that threaten to displace his family. Photographer and mountaineer Shivajee Chandrabhushan turned this kernel of an idea into a film which has been screened at different global film festivals. Filming Frozen wasn’t easy, especially given the harsh climatic conditions. But Chandrabhushan feels it was all worth it especially as critics label Frozen a ground-breaking attempt in cinema emerging from India.
Your directorial debut Frozen has been screened at film festivals around the world. How has the response been?
Frozen has travelled to 30 international film festivals across the globe since June 2007. The response has been amazing. The audience appreciated the narrative and the way it has been filmed and Ladakh as the location of the film was fascinating for many of them. People, after all, haven’t seen the Himalayas in a black-and-white format before so obviously they could not believe that such a film has come from India. The film is the story of a father, daughter and son who live in northern Himalayas and their fight for survival.
The film strongly reflects your passion for photography and mountaineering. How was the experience of merging the two with filmmaking?
The natural progression from still to moving images was designed by destiny. That’s all I can say. Mountains and photography still remain my main passions. I love them. Filmmaking, however, is a meditative hobby, not a profession.
You decided to make Frozen in black-and-white to suit the theme of the film which speaks of stark contrasts. Why?
The choice was both creative and technical. We used colour stock because availability of black-and-white is not easy and the quality is poor. During post-production, however, the film was converted from a colour format to a completely black-and-white format. In fact, our entire production design, including costumes and makeup, was done to suit a black-and-white texture. It was a very conscious and a very important decision.
Critics have said Frozen is ground-breaking in contemporary cinema.
We just wanted to make a very good film with honesty and conviction. We were not thinking that we were doing something ground-breaking. I am happy that critics and audiences abroad have appreciated it. Now I wish that Indian audiences and critics would at least watch the film.
Experts say that recession is when small, alternate films prosper. Do you agree?
I don’t have an answer to that. I reckon that good cinema with quality content always works. Finding distributors is always tough. But who said life is easy?
What are your forthcoming projects?
I am currently scripting three stories. One of them is The Untold Tale, an Indo-Spanish joint venture. The story starts in 1956 Madrid and ends in present-day Rajasthan.