Learning is Saving!!!

I don’t know how many of you have read a press release with headline: “23 year old kid with broken leg challenging Bollywood big players!”, but I had it and was proud to know he belongs to same city as me and shares same surname. (I don’t know why it is such a big deal to know someone with same surnames, caste or names excites us so much). I was excited, anxious & nervous to meet that out of world guy. I knocked thrice out of excitement. I wanted to know this guy so that I could decide whether to continue or leave my 1 month workshop on Cinematography and Editing being held at his office.

 “Hello… Can I meet Mr. Prajakt Meshram??” I asked when door was opened by some not so out of world guy.

 “Hi.. I am Prajakt and You??” he asked inviting me inside.

“I am Aadesh Meshram, I called you this morning”, I replied reminding him of our morning conversation. “What the fuck, he did to his flat??”, was on my mind the moment I entered his flat.

“Why all this (shitty) “Graffiti work??”, I asked pointing towards his walls & roof ,sarcasm garnished my words decoratively.

“To save money”, was his simple answer. I was as confused as a puppy caught in traffic. He easily read my face. “Many people who visited me has same expressions as yours but seriously this all graffiti work was to save money”, he added.

 “And how???” I asked.

“My Dad had produced 2 Marathi films and I closely observed that people in this Industry charge you for two things- their knowledge & your unawareness. We had heavy loss producing both films but my father was still determined to invest more, which I considered as wastage of money. So before anyone could trap him I told him about my concept of making film on college guys sitting on last bench, with failures in academy but dreams to make it big in life. Back then I wasn’t interested in filmmaking but in saving money. For me it’s like you don’t need interest to save money, saving money itself is interesting, and that’s how my desire to save, pushed me to learn new things and that’s why I believe Learning is Saving” he replied sitting on bed. I took my seat on sofa.

I smiled on his explanation, poor guy with expensive learning. “So filmmaking didn’t attract you, but saving money did?” I asked.

“There were other reasons too”, he said but before he could add I jumped “Like what…casting couch?? Foreign location shoots?? Or Glamorous life??” I could not stop my sarcastic laugh (even he was smiling).

“No..no…not all that but because I heard Robert Rodrigeuz saying “ If you are someone who is already creative & then you become technical, then you are unstoppable and dangerous”, he quoted the statement as it was.(how did I know? I read it too.)

“From my past experiences I knew if you are not technical you are handicap, dependent on others, can’t communicate properly with crew & can’t give your best results”, he added. “And that’s why I decided to learn all aspects of filmmaking like Script writing, Cinematography, Direction, Acting & Editing”, he said little proudly.

“Jack of all master of none”, words spurted out of my mouth.

 “No…its One man army”, he retorted.

“So any other reason??” I asked rudely.

“Not exactly a reason but a decision that I want to make movie with my friends & not with professionals from Mumbai”, he answered.

“And why this Kolavari di??” I asked lifting my shoulders & eye brows.

“Because a professional is an amateur who keeps on trying”, he quoted. “See when I did my research I came to know that any crash course or diploma will take 6 months to 12 months for completion, so why not to invest that time in learning, making mistakes, learning from mistakes & keep moving towards my goal. I didn’t wanted to make a blockbuster movie with professionals but to create professionals who will make blockbuster movies,” he finished.

I was surprised by his answers. He didn’t look like 23 years old or broken leg guy by any means. “So you entered film industry not for love of film making but to “SAVE MONEY”, to LEARN TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF FILMMAKING and to FORM FILM INDUSTRY”, I asked looking deeply into his eyes. He laughed.

“I liked the way you summoned my words, you deserve a cup of tea. Let’s go out”, he said patting on my shoulders. We left to nearby tea stall. That day I had no idea I will become good friend with Prajakt and that I will be writing about this meeting.