Chhattisgarhi film beats Mohabbatein
Chhattisgarhi film beats Mohabbatein
Komal Nahta
The story behind the making and release of Mor Chhainha Bhuinya, which has celebrated a 100 day run in Chhattisgarh, is such dramatic fare that it could easily pass off as a good subject for a hit film!
Satish Jain, its writer-producer-director, is not new to the Hindi film world.
Even though he has written films like Panaah, Dulaara, Pardesi Babu, Rajaji and the story of Hadh Kar Di Aapne, Satish saw his future going nowhere in Bollywood.
The worst came when Govinda and director Manoj Agarwal found his Hadh Kar Di Aapne screenplay unsuitable and replaced him, keeping only his story.
Dejected, Satish returned to his hometown, Raipur in Chhattisgarh, with the subject for a Chhattisgarhi film in his mind, a little money in his pocket and a lot of tension.
Making a Chhattisgarhi film was not easy, especially because until then, only two films had been produced in that dialect.
Besides, there was no finance available for the film.
Recalls Satish, “We sold our family land at Rana Pratappur, near Bastar. My brother-in-law also mortgaged his land, while my brother borrowed money from his friends. But we still ran short of money. So my father literally begged for funds, knocking door-to-door in our village. My entire family supported me in my time of need.
“If the film has a running time of only one hour 50 minutes, it is because we decided to do away with the shooting of 20 scenes and a song as we had no money left.”
The compromises were apparent in other departments too.
Satish’s brother Tiku was fond of singing and, to save money, he was ‘made’ a playback singer for the film! A harmonium player from Bombay, Pradeep Pandit, was asked to double up as another playback singer.
The film was mainly shot in Bhilai, besides other places. Once the film’s shooting was completed, Satish thought his woes were over.
But it had only just begun. No distributor was ready to touch the film. Depressed, but not daunted, Satish and his brother decided to distribute the film themselves.
Without any knowledge of distribution, this was only the beginning of a further harrowing experience for the Jain brothers.
Exhibitors were anything but co-operative. Some of those scoffed at the idea of screening a Chhattisgarhi film. But Satish and his brother used all their persuasive powers and released the film in Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur on Diwali (October 27).
The rest, as they say, is history…
The film, which opened with 3 prints, has 12 prints engaged today, 100 days later.
The film completed a hundred day run on February 3 in Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur. Of these, cinemas in Raipur and Bilaspur had five shows daily — an unprecedented record! In Durg too, the film was screened five shows daily for several weeks before it was brought down to four shows.
The blockbuster, which cost less than Rs 15 lakhs to make, is expected to do a business of over Rs 2 crores. It is now heading for a hundred day run at Bhilai, Rajnandgaon, Korba, Dhamtari, Ambikapur and Shakti.
At Rajim, which has a population of 25,000 and only two cinemas, the film is being screened at both cinemas!
State transport buses are doing such brisk business, carrying loads of people to and fro the cinemas screening the hit that new bus-stops have sprung up outside such cinemas at Rajim and other smaller centres.
In fact, people not only come in busloads, but in bullock carts and tractors too! So cinemas halls now display sign boards indicating parking space for the tractors and carts!
In Bhilai, a British lady, running an institute where she teaches students to make video and documentary films, saw the film 70 times! She was so impressed by the film’s message that the education system is not suitable for preparing the youth for jobs, that she even telephoned Satish to congratulate him.
The film is about a family returning to their village after facing tough times in the impersonal city where they had gone with hope and dreams.
The film’s success means that about 25 Chhattisgarhi projects are in various stages of planning and production. Of these, five are in advanced stages of production or post-production.
“The film had a very slow start. In fact, for the first two days, I felt it wouldn’t work. The worst fears overtook me. I would not have had the courage to face my family after what they had done for me. I thought I may have to run away…” Satish recalls.
But the film’s collections picked up from the third day, and the collections have been rising since.
The film, which looked too insignificant to merit a mention in front of the other two Diwali releases — Mohabbatein and Mission Kashmir — soon left the Bollywood flicks far behind in Chhattisgarh.
Satish now plans to add a song to the film. This song, which already appears on the film’s audio cassette, has the names of all the railway stations in Chhattisgarh and may well lure audiences all over again!
The song is scheduled to be shot this month and will be included in all the prints from March. Satish is also contemplating dubbing the film in Bhojpuri.
Its great regional movies are capturing the market.
Rashmi Priya
November 19, 2007
i need to work with satish jain,iam story writer also ,i want to your address &mobile no&email. iam a i.tengineers and very very interested in film
sunil thakur
November 27, 2007
i need to work with satish jain,iam story writer also ,i want to your address &mobile no&email. iam a i.tengineers and very very interested in film.
sunil thakur
November 27, 2007
i have 6 story.
type of the story-
1. MAHAKAAL
2. PYAAR K LIYE
3. ZAKHAM
4. THE MENOSTIM
5. ANAT
6. CHAHAT
MOBAIL NAMBAR- 09229967039
satish kumar
May 27, 2008
ILIP KUMAR JAISAWAL
DILIP
June 2, 2009
Good Job Satish Brother. I am Proud of you that you made our state proud. i Hope you write more stories.
good luck
jitendra Sahu
May 13, 2010
its a great movie sir.
nitin gwala
July 20, 2010
aap kisi se baat nahi karte kya satish ji aap agar kisi ko support nahi kar sakte aage badne me to aisi kamyaabi kis kaam ki hai aap hi batayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
radhe
October 6, 2010
Recpected sir i m strrugler actor n telifilm maker
n sir i have 3year experiance in cg film n i wat to work in u r film plz give me 1 chance n sir had 3 cg cinemascope film n 1 video album n 2 telefilm
thank you sir
Indra kumar kashyap
October 12, 2010
Great Satish Ji, your struggle to make and release is a great job. I am very impressed.
Dayanand Mahanand
November 8, 2010
hi satish sir good afternoon myself amit thakur i am an anchor,mimicry artist and comic skit writer can u plz give me guideline for my creativety carrier ,bye tc sir
amit kumar thakur
November 20, 2010
dear sir, you r the only person who give a path to chhattisgarhi film with new innovatation. its great achivement for chhattisgarhi people to compete the other states in film industry.
Sachin Tamrakar
Sachin Tamrakar
February 13, 2011
WE WORK ON SPECIAL EFFECT, 3D CHARACTER ANIMATION, VFX, AND OTHER ….
DO CONTACT FOR NEEDFUL REQUIRMENT…
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BHOLANATH PATEL
February 18, 2011
Respected sir,
mere pass ek family film story hai, sir please agar aap ek baar meri story sun lege to mein aap ka bhahut abhar rahuga because iam in need for my family.
thankyou
rolly saheb
November 13, 2011
great .its totlly wrong mr. radhe .he worked hard so he got what he deserve.so think different .agar comment karne se kuch hota to koi sttrugle kyo karta.
yatendra prakash gajendra
December 3, 2011
We are looking for a project on first ever action packed” chhattisgarhi thriller movie ” (quite based on reality).
Entries invited.
Send in your projects before “20th April 2012” to : asn.paul84@gmail.com
ASN Movies
April 15, 2012
i have many story, many ideas taken from reality. Action, naxilites ,
thriller kind of story i can prepare.
can any film maker give a chance?
i have no experiance.
my phone no. 9630305750
mukund kaushal
June 23, 2012
i wrote sum story for u. But how to i meet with u
reyaj tyrewala
October 2, 2012
Mujhe bhi chhattisgarhi movie me kaam karne ka bada mann karta hai. Mujhe aap koi ek chance deke dekhiye mai comedy achchi kar leta hoon sir. Give me one chance, please sir.!
Navneet chandravanshi
October 12, 2012
Sir I am banwari dad surje 29 I want write good story.
Banwari das surje
March 12, 2015
My name is aaditya shah
Age 21
Skin fair
Hgt 5’4 ftt
I dont want hero or vilan i just want to see how to work and communicate,
And need work in crue member or in your team.
U can respond me at my gmail .
Thankyou
Aaditya shah
March 14, 2015
Sir I am jagat and I am story writter ..
So give me any one chance …
My story ..
1,lamhen
2,Teri dastan
3,Teri gali
4,intjaar
5,mind power
6,,pardes
jagat
September 16, 2016
sir i am sukhdev shriwas i became a actor sir so give me 1 chance
apke shath ais a assistant director kam karna chahta hu
mo..9179813611
sukhdev shriwas
February 18, 2017