Being part of a Parsi family doing things together and being a part of each other’s endeavours have been the most important and fulfilling part of my homeschooling journey. Bioscopewala is just one of them. Do watch it with your family and let us know which part you could relate to.
As a Parsi child whenever I visited the town of Udvada in Gujarat, I was always told of the late Sohrab Modi’s bungalow in Udvada. I am not sure whether it was completely true but definitely, the man was a legend of sorts. Not only for the kind of films he was a part of and his baritone voice but also for the very fact that being a Parsi he spoke impeccable Urdu. The childhood curiosity to know more about this man, who supposedly owned a bungalow in the town, where we could only afford the Sodawaterwala Dharamshala, never died down.
I was researching about him for a documentary, and I realised there was already a couple of them. But one leaf of his life amazed me the most. A few years back there were reports of his Dadasaheb Phalke Medallion being available for sale at Chor Bazaar. I wondered what would have happened to his Udvada home if at all there was one.
The germ of the idea of Bioscopewala was born from this extreme reality of the glittery film world. With dreams and aspirations, so many of our youth are attracted to the glossy silver screen. Seldom do they know that it takes grit and sheer hard work to sustain these dreams. I too was in this space a few many years back and making Bioscopewala for me was a process of self-actualisation.
To the lost and confused generation, dreams are like a mirage, the closer you get, the fainter they become. And I hope, my film Bioscopewala is a testament to this.