JOIN USA self-confessed “ardent Hindi film viewer”, Ashok Yadav landed in Mumbai in 2011 to satiate his “madness” for filmmaking, which he developed during his college days.
However, like anyone without any film industry connections, the small town boy from Datia, Madhya Pradesh struggled to get his foot into the industry, which, he says “works only through connections”.
“... and because I didn’t know how to approach any known filmmakers, I used to take out their home addresses from the film directory and land up at their homes. However, while assisting in a Hindi feature film, I got an opportunity to work with legendary cinematographer, late Ashok Mehta who told me at the end of the shoot, ‘Don’t ever assist any film now. Go and make your own film’,” he tells Metrolife.
The words left such an impact on Yadav that he immediately started working for his debut feature film, which will see the light of day on July 1 as Kerry on Kutton. His debut venture is a story depicting the lives of four rebellious teenagers living in a small town called Baliya in Uttar Pradesh and how their lives intertwine, eventually leading to crime. Yadav says the idea behind the film germinated from the fact that he and one of his crew members, Himanshu Onkar Tripathi, hail from towns like Datia and Ballia, which are known for their rebellious nature of crime. And as a team, he says, they wanted to tell a story they had been subconsciously witnessing and living with since childhood. “We felt we could do justice to the subject,” he says.
“I always wanted to make my first film through the experiences I have lived so far. While making this film, I once again relived the emotions of my teenage days that were so pure and free, without any inhibitions. Through this movie, we are trying to showcase the lives of teenagers studying in a Hindi medium school in an entertaining way, while subtly giving the message that teenager’s rebellious and free-flowing nature should be diverted in the right direction,” says Yadav.
“Though we have seen teenage films based on English medium schools, the teenage films on Hindi medium school has not been explored much,” he adds.
Shot across Lucknow, Banaras and Orchha, the film stars Satyajeet Dubey, Aradhana Jagota, Aditya Kumar, Shivam Pradhan and Karan Mahavar among others. While there is no lead character in the film, the director says each artiste has an important role to play, even if he comes on the screen for only a few minutes.
He, however, adds that his film, like any other independent venture was “full of challenges; be it financial or other aspects”.
“So there were challenges at every step, but I was blessed to have a supportive team. There was abundant positive energy on the set, which I feel is the reason that made the film what it is today. My only expectation from the movie is that it reaches as much as audience as possible,” he says.