Director Chaitanya Tamhane is no stranger to accolades. His previous film, Court (2015) was selected as India’s official entry to the 88th Academy Awards, and now, his Marathi film The Disciple (2020) is winning praise all over the world and has been acquired by streaming giant Netflix.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, who picked Tamhane for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative programme, came onboard the project as an executive producer in August last year.
Observing Alfonso Cuarón at work helped me in making The Disciple, says Chaitanya Tamhane
During his online conversation with filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, directors of the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), the 33-year-old filmmaker spilt the beans on his filmmaking and post-production process. Tamhane spoke at length about the leisurely pace of his films. "On a script level, I don't think you get an exact idea of the pacing of the film. It's something you end up discovering during a shoot and in the edit," he said.
Tamhane also emphasized that sound design also plays a crucial role in shaping the perception of time. "I do have an affinity towards certain pacing. You can say that it's a personal preference. But if you look at it, the pacing of The Disciple is much more dynamic than Court, even though both films are on the quieter side," he said.
Tamhane was initially looking to hire someone else to edit The Disciple but things didn't work out as he wished. He said, "I have always been very closely involved in the edit of my films but this is the first time I have officially edited my film. This is all thanks to Alfonso because I was looking to hire an editor. I had written and directed the film so I feared that I might lose the objectivity. So when I talked to Alfonso about my conundrum, he said that this was just a tantrum and I should just edit the film myself because no one knows the film better than me."
Although The Disciple is a realistic film, Tamhane revealed that he had to use a lot of visual effects during its making to get the desired effect. "We have used VFX in the film but it's done in a very subtle and devious way that you won't even notice. But I had a complete ball doing that and really expands your vocabulary about what's possible. At the end the effect matters and not the method. From lighting the set to blocking, everything in cinema is manipulated. Everything is okay, as long as you can't sense the methodology behind it," he said.
The Disciple looks at the world of classical musicians on the fringes of success. It explores the theme of what it means to be a purist from the perspective of a vocalist who has devoted his life to the study of classical Indian music but is slowly coming to the realization that he may not be able to achieve the excellence he strives for.