Homestay where we wrote Pondicherry became film’s main location, says Tejas Modak

Sachin Kundalkar has carried out an experiment by shooting his upcoming film, Pondicherry, entirely on a smartphone, which is unprecedented in Marathi cinema.

The movie stars Sai Tamhankar, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi, Amruta Khanvilkar and Neena Kulkarni. 

During the trailer launch of Pondicherry, writer Tejas Modak revealed that the film wasn’t meant to be shot on a smartphone initially. “It was supposed to be a regular film with a regular camera,” he said. “But during the shoot of [Kundalkar's last film] Gulabjaam (2018) Milind [Jog, cinematographer] said, ‘Next time we do something, let’s do it with a small unit; around 15 people’. So we had to tweak it. Earlier, the film was supposed to happen in Coorg. But a shoot with just 15 people can’t happen there.”

Speaking about the process, Modak added, “Sachin and I had gone to Pondicherry. It was colourful and it has a texture. So we decided to shoot it there. We went there again to rewrite the draft. Because it was originally meant for the regular camera, you have to write a fresh draft. The language changes. Pondicherry is slow. You can see people cycling, walking and jogging.”

Sharing a piece of trivia related to the shoot, he added, “We took a homestay in Pondicherry. The funny thing is that the homestay that we picked to write the film became the main location of the film, which is Sai’s house.” 

Produced by Neil Patel and Kundalkar and distributed by AP Communications, Pondicherry will be released in theatres on 25 February.