MUMBAI: Madhur Bhandarkar rues missing out on sending his next film for Cannes and Venice film festival

MUMBAI: Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar’s
next film, India Lockdown, was among those that were impacted by the second
wave of Covid-19.

Madhur
Bhandarkar was almost done with his upcoming film India Lockdown, when
he had to stop everything due to the second Covid wave. The National
Award-winning filmmaker says he wanted to send it to many prestigious film
festivals but a lot of his plans were thrown into a tizzy.

“I wanted
to send the film to Cannes and Venice film festival, I missed the dates for
both because of the second wave and the lockdown. The editing also stopped, we
didn’t know what to do,” he laments.

However,
Bhandarkar is happy that he had enough time at hand before the second wave to
work on the film.

“I am
very fortunate that I had started shooting in January end, and completed most
of the film in 27-28 days. We followed all Covid protocols. I shot with a crowd
also, everything was taken care of. I completed most of it in one go,” says
Bhandarkar, thanking his actors Prateik Babbar, Saie Tamhankar, Aahana Kumra
for cooperating well.

“They
knew the subject I was dealing with. I was showing exactly what happened in the
lockdown the first time around in 2020. It is a human story,” he adds.

The
entire showbiz industry had again suffered losses due to the shutdown,
considering a lot of releases and announced films had to put work on hold
abruptly. The last day of the shoot before work shut down for Bhandarkar was
March 9.

The Fashion
(2008) director says the unlock has naturally come as a big sigh of relief,
with actors venturing out to resume shooting. He recently shared pictures of
the post production work beginning again.

“The
whole of April and May, we didn’t know what to do. My editor couldn’t come, the
office was shut. In this crisis, you just had to sit at home. Now that work has
opened up again, we have too. I am very happy with the way my film is shaping
up,” ends Bhandarkar.