FILMMAKER CHHATRAPAL NINAWE'S His first movie, Ghaath, was a trip he wouldn't want to see his worst foe experience. The Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, chose Ghaath for its Panorama section in 2021. The movie was then pulled out of the festival by the producing partner, who did not explain why to Ninawe and even refused to discuss or shed light on the strange choice. Following a prolonged deadlock, Drishyam Films, the other production company, and Shiladitya Bora's Platoon One purchased the share of the Marathi film's previous producing partner. After making its debut at Berlinale in 2023, Ghaath enjoyed a lengthy festival run, appearing at the International Film Festival of Kerala and the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival before being released in theaters in September 2024. It is currently available for rent on Amazon Prime. In this talk, Ninawe discusses this lengthy and difficult journey that is exceptional even for an independent picture.

"Due to doubt, it was, honestly, the worst time in my life. What's going to become of the movie? The Berlin invitation convinced us that the movie was good, but the feeling that it would never be shown anywhere made us feel discriminated against. "Fortunately, everything was resolved," he adds. "I am grateful to everyone involved, especially Berlinale, because they went out of their way. Festivals don't do that. The movie would never have been released if it weren't for Berlinale." From the very beginning, he experienced a roller coaster of emotions on the trip. They were a genuine independent entity at first, but they expanded somewhat after Manish Mundra joined the team. The movie was initially an independent production, then a studio picture, and then it returned to being an independent film. "I would have created a different film if I had known this was the route ahead. It was a stressful ordeal. Despite knowing that every independent or arthouse film has a long and uncertain path, he thinks that the path for Ghaath was more difficult than it should have been for any movie. "Even my actors started to question whether creating and displaying a movie is this challenging."

Through three key protagonists, Ghaath mixes genres to create a multifaceted tale. It explores its viewpoints on the Maoist war and the interconnected lives of the Adivasis via Falgun (Dhananjay Mandaokar), an undercover revolutionary, the merciless police ACP Nagpure (Jitendra Joshi), and Raghunath (Milind Shinde), a revolutionary eager to escape. Ghaath centers on the predicament of the indigenous tribal community, who are caught between government oppression and overreach, as well as a formerly righteous battle that has gotten out of hand, in a style that is half thriller and half drama. Kusuri (Suruchi Adarkar), a local lady who meets Raghunath, and Perku (Janardan Kadam), the last surviving member of his tribe, who lives alone on an island until Nagpure invades his sanctuary, are the main characters of this pro-tribal film. "Despite the fact that Falgun and Raghunath are tribal while ACP is not, my goal was to represent the tribal viewpoint." However, since they are also armed, they are not a true representation. He considers Kusuri and Perku to be the true embodiment of his movie's political message. For each of these primary heroes, he invented these sidekicks. There is an informant for Falgun. Perku has ACP, whereas Kusuri has Raghunath. "My politics gives more importance to people, and both ideologies, the state or the Maoists, are killing people," Ninawe said. The film elicited a diverse response from audiences throughout its festival run.

"I was questioned at a festival as to why I am producing a picture that is anti-left." The late Derek Malcolm, who was his mentor at the NFDC Work-In-Progress lab, informed him that his film is pro-Maoist. And in Kerala, a director questioned him about why his picture portrays Maoists negatively. Despite the fact that the movie's journey may indicate a fear over how the government will perceive it, Ninawe claims that some individuals have seen it as a pro-right picture. Although the picture encourages such discussion and responses, Ninawe is amused by the fact that he created a pro-tribal movie that people like to categorize in this way or that. He also believes that the movie did not get as much promotion. "I believe that it received less coverage despite being a movie with an indigenous perspective. For example, when compared to Joram." Devashish Makhija's Joram, which stars Manoj Bajpayee, had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2023 and was released in theaters in December of the same year. "Naturally it's a Hindi movie, with a star like Bajpayee. However, I'm speaking comparatively.

The audience reaction to Ninawe has been fantastic, particularly to the first act with Falgun, which is intriguing due to its limited conversation and suspenseful silent film-like plot. Falgun is prudent since he is working undercover, and he won't talk too much. He makes an effort to maintain a low profile, and that's a recurring theme. It would be absolutely silent if the informer hadn't come. That's the sort of approach the narrative needed. When making a first film, one isn't concerned with the audience; one is simply focused on telling a story, according to Ninawe. There was also some criticism of the third chapter. "It is common feedback I heard. The first two chapters are a mystery, but in the third chapter, I abruptly attempted to change the genre to drama. "I never thought a Maoist guerrilla fighter in Maharashtra would be relatable to someone in Germany," he said, cherishing the intimate interactions he had with his audience, like in Berlin, where a former guerrilla fighter in the erstwhile German Democratic Republic or East Germany identified with the Maoists in the film.

However, the character of Perku, portrayed by Janardan Kadam, has received the warmest reception. “He was just terrific in the audition. I imagined his look as someone who belongs to the first tribe that appeared in the subcontinent,” said a tribal man who was modeled after someone who had lived in the jungle all his life, away from civilization, and who had a peculiar connection with a police officer. In addition to his theatrical endeavors, Kadam collaborates with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Because of his caste, he informed Ninawe that he has very little chances in the film industry. "I told him that I don't care if the audition is good, I'll take him. And when I saw it, I was blown away." The greatest difficulty for Ninawe was convincing a man who was born and raised in Mumbai to portray someone whose blood screamed jungle. “Perku is not dumb, he cannot afford to be dumb. He must find methods to live in the jungle every day.” He brought a few of the performers to the woods, where he organized a workshop and stayed the night. "We had to understand how important moonlight is in the jungle and how dangerous it can be without it." It's ironic to believe that Perku is everyone's favorite character, but he also symbolizes the unconnected tribal person who the government dislikes or disregards. "Indian films depict tribal characters as dimwits." The response that ACP Nagpure has towards Perku is precisely how the rest of the state will react to an Adivasi. When they want to accomplish anything for their own purposes, they won't care about erasing or rendering him invisible, even if they feel bad and may wish to do good for these individuals.

Next up for Ninawe is an autobiographical coming-of-age movie about her childhood in Nagpur, her first love, her time in school, and adolescent violence. He also makes reference to a trilogy of Hunt books, of which Ghaath is the first, and he is currently working on the sequel, which follows a nomadic hunting tribe where a father and son hunt together and how the hunter turns into the hunted. However, he thinks that the coming-of-age movie will hit the market first.

Amazon Prime Video now offers Ghaath for rent.

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