Newton director Amit V. Masurkar, whose movie has been selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars, says he has always wanted to do a political story.
The film, which deals with the ideological battle between the government and Maoists, has been selected by a 14-member jury constituted by the Film Federation of India and will represent the country at the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category in 2018.
Newton revolves around a young government employee Newton Kumar — played by the critically acclaimed Rajkummar Rao — who is sent out to execute an election in a Maoist-prone area in Chhattisgarh.
Newton is Masurkar’s second film after Suleimani Keeda.
Asked what made him choose a political subject that’s complicated and not as popular in cinema as the Kashmir issue or the political crisis of north eastern states, Masurkar said: “I wanted to tell a story in the political space. The reason for choosing Chhattisgarh is that the issue here is different from the two that you have mentioned. Naxals are not asking for a separate country or fighting for development or seeking an answer to any injustice. The battle is from the ideological differences on democracy. Naxals want to bring a change in democracy by establishing a communist rule.”
“Therefore, the story of the film is quite clear — a government, an opposition to the government and then there is a man who represents the government, who is honestly trying to do his duty and struggling on his way,” he added.
The movie, which doesn’t have a UAE release date so far, has been raved about by critics and the film fraternity. It was premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.
Recounting his struggle to find a producer to the make the film, Masurkar said: “I showed the script to a couple of studios who said that ‘Oh, it’s politics... Youth have no interest in it’. The moment I narrated the story to Manish [Mundra of Drishyam Films], he said yes in no time.”
“He has got a great taste for stories and understands the pulse of the audience,” he added.
It was later that producer Aanand L. Rai and a banner like Eros International Entertainment came on board.
“I showed Aanand sir the film and he liked the film and decided to be a part of its release. And of course, I am thankful for that. But what touched me is how he remembered me. I once assisted him 14 years ago for one of his telefilms,” Masurkar said.
“He is such a gem of a person. He came out after watching the film [and] saying ‘I am so proud of you Amit,’” he said.
Rao plays the lead character in Newton, but according to the director, all the characters in the film have been written substantially to build the story.
“I made some small changes according to the talent of the actors. Like Pankaj Tripathi is such a brilliant actor who has a command over Hindi, so we wrote the dialogues for him accordingly,” he added.
“The character of Raghubir Yadav was also elaborated according to his calibre. And Rajkummar was the first choice because there are some of the strong similarities of personality between him and Newton. They are both quite sincere in their job and idealistic,” Masurkar said.
He hopes that in a scenario where the taste of the Indian audience is changing, they embrace a movie like Newton.
“We are just putting the film out there and leaving the rest to the audience,” he said.
