From Talegaon to Three of Us: Walking down the memory lane with filmmaker Avinash Arun

A young boy from Talegaon a small town near Pune Maharashtra would burst out of his innate shyness only for the movies He would mostly keep to himself unless a film he loved turned him into a storyteller to his classmates as an audience Four directorials and more than 20 years later the man seems to have retained a bit of the reticence while his love for cinema has only increased Avinash Arun doesnrsquot narrate stories of the films he devoured in a cinema hall anymore but tells tales simmering within him and from life around himldquoI am looking inwards now to see what kind of stories I want to tell Itrsquos because of this mindset Paatal Lok School of Lies and Three of Us happened back to back They have given me the confidence to call myself a filmmaker Thatrsquos why I am doing this interviewrdquo he beginsThe current curiosity and attention around Arun would have one believe he just bursted into the scene a new voice on the horizon But thatrsquos what his story has been His work arrived much before he didA few firstsArun made his feature debut over a decade ago with the heartwarming coming of age Marathi film Killa which is also a National Award winner It was the most reputable entry in the movies one could ask for Yet it didnrsquot make the noise that it should have ldquoWith Killa people noticed that I was a good filmmaker But it was a regional film Even though people asked me about my future plans things didnrsquot get much pushrdquo What one would imagine to be a fertile follow up to an awardwinning debut became a phase marked by disappointment and angerldquoThere were a couple of Marathi projects I started pitching but studios were of the opinion that those films wouldnrsquot work for the market because Sairat had released and become big While these films were smaller in nature I was very upset at that time because I felt that I have to prove myself even to get one narration from a studio head despite a film like Killa Like once I went to a studio for a narration but the concerned person said lsquoI am busy but my assistants will hear itrsquo I left from thererdquo That was perhaps Arunrsquos first encounter with the rude reality of the industry that acclaim doesnrsquot equate to fame To a debutante in mid20s it also meant crushing selfconfidence even before it was built ldquoI thought Killa was a flukerdquoThe filmmaker has had a complicated relationship with confidence Itrsquos the lack of it that didnrsquot let him pursue filmmaking as a discipline as a student But itrsquos also his selfbelief that powered him through tremendous circumstances Growing up Arun wanted to be a musician But for the son of a mill worker the world of melodies seemed too far to attempt I was born in Solapur I belong to a lower middle class family Both my father and grandfather were mill workers I remember I used to sing in an orchestra But there was no connection to the industry or the arts so of course I couldnrsquot pursue music But I have a distinct memory of listening to Bollywood songsrdquoPardes and PapaWhat Arunrsquos father gifted him at a very young age very few can buy The absolute unconditional love for cinema My father used to take me along to watch films He says that whatever he has learnt in life is because of filmsrdquo He was all of 13 when Shah Rukh Khanled romantic drama Pardes hit the screens Director Subhash Ghai was one of the biggest in the industry the filmrsquos album by Nadeem Shravan was a chartbuster Arun happened to come across one of Ghairsquos interviews where he mentioned he was a graduate from a film institute in Pune ldquoI asked my father about it and he told me lsquoItrsquos a place where you are taught how to make filmsrsquo I told him I wanted to go there I just wanted to see how films were maderdquoMore than two years later Arun shifted to Pune and thereby began his decadelong defining relationship with Film and Television Institute of India FTII which has been the alma mater of many greats of Hindi cinemaldquoI knew I wanted to get into films I went to Pune after 10th standard and started making rounds to FTII One of the insecurities I of course had was that filmmaking is an expensive art form and I come from a backward community The only thing that I focused on was going to FTII for which I learnt graduation was neededrdquo But even before he enrolled into the institute Arun found himself on film sets Another recurring motif that has shaped up Arunrsquos career is that he learnt from life experiences far more than a school could teachldquoAcclaimed Marathi director Sumitra Bhave was remaking her popular Marathi film 10th F in Hindi An advertisement in the papers said there would be auditions for child characters So I went for it and was among the few selected We even workshopped for it for 15 days and then I learnt that the film wasnrsquot happening I contacted one of the art assistants on the film and told them that I would be available for any kind of job on the next film Thatrsquos how I got to be on Sumitra Bhaversquos film sets I assisted in setting production and every department you name I also started assisting on FTII diploma films and whichever film I would work on would win awards One of them was Umesh Kulkarnirsquos Girni That gave me confidencerdquoC for cinematography and collaborationsConfidence still betrayed Arun But camera didnrsquot By now Arun had realised that movies were his beall and endall So for someone who couldnrsquot even muster the courage to direction what would guarantee longterm survival in the industry I wanted to learn direction I should have learnt direction but I wasnrsquot confident enough that FTII institute will admit me in the direction course I thought if I learnt technical skills I wouldnrsquot die of hunger One day I asked someone how much one could make by focus pulling The camera attendant said Rs 2000 per day So I decided thatrsquos what I wanted to do I never left the camera ever sincerdquoPost graduation the director studied cinematography at FTII And soon his journey as a professional cinematographer began ldquoApart from lack of money and need of security I realised camera was the most important thing Everything happens for it Camera is the point of view I felt if I could learn the craft of cinematography I would be able to reach higher in the hierarchyrdquoRenowned cinematographer Anil Mehta became Arunrsquos boss And Homi Adajaniarsquos 2012 friendship drama Cocktail became his Bollywood debut Besides he regularly shot short films The camera turned out to be his most loyal companion Even when after Killa Arun struggled to find convince people to bet their money on his stories his camera took him to diverse sets and earned him genuine friendships in the industry which are even more difficult to land than a filmldquoI did get a few offers in between to direct post Killa but because my bread and butter didnrsquot depend on direction I refused them because they didnrsquot excite me I thought even if I was a one film wonder it would be okay But even as a cinematographer I have chosen work according to the people involved in I always saw if I could be friends with my directors I donrsquot believe in hierarchy From Neeraj Ghaywan for whom I shot Masaan 2015 to Siddharth Malhotra with whom I worked in Hichki 2018 all my directors continue to be my friends Another friend I made was Nishikant Kamath with whom I collaborated on Drishyam 2015 and Madaari 2016 He was such a huge support I owe my Paatal Lok success to him I learnt how to approach a thriller working with him because his talent lay in that genre And he would do that on a commercial level I learnt how to edit how to approach the story dynamically and how to salvage yourself when you land yourself in situationsrdquoDirection and dreamsIn all those years of him as a cinematographer there were innumerable stories that brewed in Arunrsquos mind but he knew he had to wait a little longer to tell them Thatrsquos when Sudip Sharma offered him Paatal Lok the Jaideep Ahlawatled crime thriller that was to become a rage across the country ldquoI thought my second film would never happen But then Sudip Sharma called me for Paatal Lok OTT has literally empowered me Had it not been there I would have remained a one film director Paatal Lok empowered me to make my second film a film that I wanted to make Killa mere mann ki thi show mere mann ka tha pehli Hindi film bhi mere mann ki honi chahiye That was the kind of commitment I had with myself because filmmaking is very sacred for me Now after this whatever I do I think I am goodrdquoThe show whose second season is due later this year also made Arun take another decision to put halt to his journey as a cinematographer ldquoI want to shoot my friendsrsquo films but now therersquos a voice in me which is asking me to explore the filmmaker within I have to listen to itrdquoIt doesnrsquot happen every day that a director with just two films and two shows under his credit becomes one of the most impactful voices of an industry But economy was always Arunrsquos forte ldquoDuring my time at FTII I learnt one thing that no one is going to make you that big budget film So if you donrsquot have the budget what kind of stories and films can you approach so that you have a major impact as a filmmaker So my approach since Killa has been very practical I donrsquot want to philosophise anythingrdquoThe filmmakerrsquos own career however has been marked by one philosophy Itrsquos never too late to be a student And today he feels confident enough to pursue the discipline ldquoI am not a well read person I have only read people I have spoken to many people and thatrsquos been my genuine interest in life Even as a child I would sit with old people and listen to their stories and observe the kind of life they have lived But I am learning to write a screenplay now One of my scripts was selected in the Film Bazaar Script Lab last year I am aware of the fact that I am not a screenplay writer My first writing credit was on Three of Us The film bazaar session was such a huge learning experience Learning should never stoprdquoSo as three of themmdash Avinash Arun his camera and storiesmdash move forward the director views his career as a big blank canvas waiting to be filled with all sorts of colours ldquoEven though Three of Us was my kind of commercial film I wonrsquot be surprised if I make an out and out commercial film because that would be a challenge for me AR Rahman has been such a huge influence on me You give him a Lavni a Jazz classical RampB or a qawwali he nails it I have wide ranging ideas Thatrsquos why my last three works have been different from each other Now making a film is not a struggle Itrsquos how to arrive at itrdquo