Director Rahat Kazmi feels on top of the world with the selection of his "Mantostaan" at Cannes Film Festival, and says it will be a huge encouragement for independent filmmakers to make movies they believe in.
The movie will be screened in the festival's Le Marche du Film category this month, ironically coinciding with Manto's birthday that falls on May 11, the day one of Cannes.
The official screening of "Mantostaan" is on May 14.
"I am very excited for the premiere. As an independent filmmaker, this is a huge boost for me and others because not many studios come forward to back such projects easily. A platform like Cannes will encourage us a lot as our aim is not to earn crores of rupees but to make people aware about the film," Rahat told PTI.
The film brings to celluloid celebrated Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto's some of the most controversial stories, "Khol Do", "Thanda Gosht", "Aakhri Salute" and "Assignment".
"When Manto had written those stories, there was a huge controversy, but now people who write literature appreciate it. Pakistan said he was Indian and India said he was a Pakistani. He was in fact a world in his own and hence I titled the film 'Mantostaan'," Rahat said.
The filmmaker, who made his directorial debut with 2009 comedy "Dekh Bhai Dekh", starring Gracy Singh, went on to make the critically acclaimed "Identity Card", which talked about the history of Kashmir, ideological differences of people, myths about religion, about identity of a common person in a warlike situation.
"Mantostaan" deals with the issue of India-Pakistan
partition, but Rahat is not afraid of any backlash.
"There is nothing in the film which will hurt the sentiments. The approach to filmmaking should be clean and without any motives. We have retained the same zone, characters, names from the story. We did not feel the need to add or subtract anything from it," the director said.
Rahat, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, had to scout for locations, which would resemble the era of partition.
"I didn't have to work on the language or to get the nuances right since there is not much of a difference between from where I come from and where the stories are set in. But to get the get up of the characters, to get the period setting right was a task," he said.
"We had to scout for locations, which would look of that era, we didn't shoot anything in the studio. We mostly shot in Punjab and Jammu," he said.
Rahat also plans to show the film to Manto's family.
"They are very happy with it. They said through this film, the work of Manto will reach a wider audience, which is the biggest compliment to me. They have also applied for visa. I plan to hold a special screening for them in Kashmir after I am back from Cannes," he said.
The film stars Raghubir Yadav, Sonal Sehgal, Shoib Nikash Shah, Tariq Khan, Virendra Saxena among others.
