After wooing audiences at various international film festivals, director Amit Masurkar’s Newton is set to release in India on September 22. The black comedy stars Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Raghuvir Yadav and Anjali Patil. “I wanted to make a political film that’s also accessible. It has humour but will also give us an insight into the way democracy functions at the grassroot level,” said Amit, who has previously directed Sulemani Keeda.
The writer-director says that researching for the subject was a major part of his pre-production work. “We divided the research team. One group went to Bastar and others studied the election procedure and how electronic voting machines are made. We tried to get into the soul of the story and get the political aspect right. As the story takes place in Chhattisgarh, we met the police, locals, naxals and activists,” he says.
The film is about an election officer who comes to a naxal-infested area to conduct elections. Amit says the weeks of research proved to be an absolute eye-opener for him. “The problems that people face there are very complex but as you move deeper, you realise that it’s the greed of the politicians, which has given birth to these problems. The entire population is taken for granted and exploited. The politicians want to keep the conflict going for their own benefit,” he says.
He adds that lands of locals are acquired forcefully and people are struggling because of that. “Illegal mining is thriving there because of conflict and the way the government is operating. It’s a complete mess,” he says.
Shooting for the film in the naxal-affected area was challenging, Amit recalls. “We could have shot the film in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra but Chhattisgarh was cheaper and we got local actors too. We chose to shoot in the jungle of Raipur but a few days before our shoot, the forest officer was arrested for taking bribe. So someone suggested we shoot in Dalli Rajhara,” he says.
Amit says that they were told to mind their own business so no one bothers them. “We were asked not to interfere. Also, when we told them about our story, they weren’t too bothered because nobody takes Bollywood seriously there. The only problem was that there was no infrastructure, so we had to do everything from scratch. There was no mobile network nor electricity. We have shot the film in sound sync,” says Amit, adding that they spent 37 days to shoot the film.
And why the title Newton? “The character’s name is Newton, inspired by Issac Newton. Newton (Issac) was a quirky guy because he was obsessed with the truth. Though our hero is not a genius like Newton, he calls himself by that name because he is a purist,” says Amit.
While the film is produced by Manish Mundra (Drishyam Films), it’s presented by Aanand L Rai. The director can’t stop raving about his producer and presenter. “Manish has done a lot for independent films. He gave me complete freedom while shooting even though we went 20 per cent over budget. As for Aanand, I had assisted him 12 years ago. Rajkummar had shown him the rough cut of the film which got him interested. Because of him, we are getting a mass release. Earlier, we were planning to release it in 150 screens but now we release in 450 to 500 screens,” says Amit before signing off.
