MUMBAI: Madhur Bhandarkar rues missing out on sending his next film for Cannes and Venice film festival

MUMBAI: Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar’s next film, India Lockdown, was among those that were impacted by the second wave of Covid-19.

Madhur Bhandarkar was almost done with his upcoming film India Lockdown, when he had to stop everything due to the second Covid wave. The National Award-winning filmmaker says he wanted to send it to many prestigious film festivals but a lot of his plans were thrown into a tizzy.

“I wanted to send the film to Cannes and Venice film festival, I missed the dates for both because of the second wave and the lockdown. The editing also stopped, we didn’t know what to do,” he laments.

However, Bhandarkar is happy that he had enough time at hand before the second wave to work on the film.

“I am very fortunate that I had started shooting in January end, and completed most of the film in 27-28 days. We followed all Covid protocols. I shot with a crowd also, everything was taken care of. I completed most of it in one go,” says Bhandarkar, thanking his actors Prateik Babbar, Saie Tamhankar, Aahana Kumra for cooperating well.

“They knew the subject I was dealing with. I was showing exactly what happened in the lockdown the first time around in 2020. It is a human story,” he adds.

The entire showbiz industry had again suffered losses due to the shutdown, considering a lot of releases and announced films had to put work on hold abruptly. The last day of the shoot before work shut down for Bhandarkar was March 9.

The Fashion (2008) director says the unlock has naturally come as a big sigh of relief, with actors venturing out to resume shooting. He recently shared pictures of the post production work beginning again.

“The whole of April and May, we didn’t know what to do. My editor couldn’t come, the office was shut. In this crisis, you just had to sit at home. Now that work has opened up again, we have too. I am very happy with the way my film is shaping up,” ends Bhandarkar.