Strength of any good film lies in its simplicity : Pan Nalin

Pan Nalin, a son of a tea stall owner, spent the first twelve years of his life in a small village Khijadiya, Gujarat. Studied Fine Arts in Vadodara and now living in Paris. He has directed award winning film Samsara which earned him Rs. 120 crores and later went on to win awards like “Grand Jury Prize – Special Mention” at AFI Fest and “Most Popular Feature Film” at Melbourne International Film Festival.

Later he made films such as Valley of Flowers and a special documentary Echo of Eco. Apart from this, he has made many other documentaries, written stories and so on.

Pan Nalin is probably the only Indian screenwriter to be twice invited to a prestigious Screen Writer’s lab- Equinox along with top Hollywood screenwriters. His next film will be Buddha: The Inner Warrior, a biopic of Siddhartha Gautama.

Originally known as Nalin Pandya and now known as Pan Nalin has a story to tell to all those who has a dream!

On his journey into filmdom

After studies in Fine Arts at the M.S. University of Baroda, I went to study Design at the prestigious NID (National Institute of Design). After shooting some four animation and twenty short silent films, I came to conclusion that the best film school is life itself.

On his Uncommon Name

[Laughs] Well, my full name is Pandya Nalinkumar Ramniklal. It so happened that the name was so long for the West that they rechristened me as Pan Nalin. Not that I really cared as long as I got the right films to direct with good funds coming in to help me survive! In Europe I had been making number of short films and documentaries and each time I was credited differently. But then finally things got became hot for me and from Pandya Nalin, I became Pan Nalin!

On Good Story Telling

I believe the strength of any good film lies in its simplicity. Let me narrate you an incident. When I decided to be a film maker, I was told by my mother that if you are really set out to do so, tell a story that an entire village can listen to.

If you can hold the attention of country side people then you can win the world. And the crux of this should lie in the fact that the story should be simple.

Now if you look at SAMSARA, it is about making choices. I have narrated the film in such a manner that I have allowed the spectator to decide the end. There is nothing intellectual about ‘SAMSARA’ and the film has its strength lying in the power of silence and less dialogues. My thought is, since our life is so full of silences, why to have a 3 hours film with non-stop chatter.

After all it’s a simple love story about choices. That’s a trait that is common amongst every individual. So many times we find ourselves asking this question, “Whom should I love, whom should I stay with, which is the job I should choose?” When in love, you also wonder that if my girl goes to Thar desert would I still accompany her? Or would I be better off by living in my A/C car? Now these are simple conflicts that I have based my film on. And this is what has helped the film moving people. They have been made to think that how much do choices dictate our love, condition our mind and govern our lives!

Tips to young Film maker

First and most important thing that every film maker should keep in mind is to develop the clarity about the theme on which they want to make a short film. Due to internet, DVD etc. borders are being vanished. There are such film makers who simply upload their work on You Tube, that’s it. They don’t have any further goals in the field.

They should focus on the direction. And once decided, they should work hard for the same. These days, there are various forms- such as animation, 3D animations, live action, documentary, commercial and non-commercial films, television series etc. At the same time, they need to check whether that theme does match to their personality or not.

On Spirituality & Religion

Spirituality is in our culture. I came to realize that let it be any kind of story, understanding of spirituality in it has great importance. For example, the latest highly successful commercial film Avatar has the spiritual angle in it. Likewise other films such as Star Wars and Matrix too have the spiritual concept.

But often, people do confuse spirituality with religion. I don’t believe in it at all. I believe that spirituality can exist equally in Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Those who are highly religious, sometimes, there is no spirituality at all in them and to reverse to it, those who are not religious at all, are highly spiritual. This is actually hard to define. It’s indeed a matter of sadness that the gap between spirituality and religion is increasing day by day.

On Frustration, Struggle & Disappointments of life

Frustration is a part of the package. And when I decided to become a film maker I knew about it. Many things cannot be achieved without it. Severe frustration, severe struggle, severe disappointment comes around in the process. And even after working so hard, we are not sure about its result. It’s a hard question, but in general, I can say that it’s of very much importance to keep the balance of stress level. It depends on how much belief you’ve for what you are doing, how much confident you’re about the same. And when frustration is higher than the belief, people do leave the field.

And the kind of projects that I do work on, there are more chances of receiving frustration. I think it’s easier to make a film taking couple of known stars having few songs.

When I left my home for my passion, my father asked me “If you’ve two paths ahead of you, one quite easier and the second very tough, which one will you chose?” To which I replied “the tougher one.” And he said “Now you’re ready to go ahead.”

This is quite a simple logic. Every youngster should learn to handle frustration. This is common for every field. Particularly, when it comes about film line, new comers have more attraction towards its glamour and they tend to forget the hard work it requires too and hence sometimes ends up with frustration.

To create a dialogue, a script, to create the characters, find the matching actors, get work from them, shoot the film etc. it’s all about concentration. During the shooting of ‘Valley of Flowers’ sometimes, at a time there used to be total 600 people involved in. Hence, so much to manage and making sure your concentration doesn’t get diverted. After the shooting comes editing, music and mixing. By the time, the film is ready to be released; film director has watched it more than 500 times. He is totally exhausted by this time, but he cannot lose sight of bigger vision he had. Director of blockbuster film Avatar, James Cameron has watched it 3000 times before it was cleared for release.

What Next?

I usually work on multiple stories at a time. My attraction is always towards good stories. Recently, I’ve written a Horror story for a producer based in Bangkok. I’m not directing it though. I am also working on a Martial Arts film ‘First Warrior’ which is an action packed film.

I am also working on a tragic comedy film. Hence, many a projects are going on in my mind and in practical. In the documentary Echo of Eco, I was one of the 30 film directors from the world who were invited to make a documentary, by Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009.

By going through the list, I was literary amazed finding my name from India among the world renowned directors from the world. I left everything else and started doing that documentary. I think, because I’m involved with multiple jobs at a time, I can manage my frustration.

I will also start working on a story by Saadat Hasan Manto which is based on the partition of India – Pakistan in 1947. The story is like, during the partition some chose to live in India, some in Pakistan, what about the mad people? It is a comedy cum tragic film.

On Directing an Actor

I have done some drama and theatres earlier. But when you become a film director, when you write a story, you need to do the acting backstage. When I do write a script, I get involved in moods of character and that is when I need to do acting myself. During the acting workshops of film, I participate in it and play the different characters to support the actors during the rehearsal process.

In Hollywood, no actor has time to do the research for acting. Hence, script has to be very specific, defining every scene. So being a film director, I’ve to do more acting than an actor!

Message from a Village Boy, who is Now a Globe Trotter

Short message is that believe in what you do. Believe with total confidence- no matter what you do, let it be music, film or even agriculture. And enjoy doing it. I feel that otherwise you shouldn’t be doing it.