Raj Pritam More has won the National Award for Best Directorial Debut for his short film ‘Khisa’. It is a prestigious award given by Government of India for film. The short film is about the loss of innocence that reflects the harsh reality of today’s polarised times. Raj More basically hails from Akola. This year two persons from Akola excelled at the national film festival. One is Sanjay Khanzode who worked as Jury Member, which was a prestigious assignment. Now, Raj too brought laurels to Akola his native place in Vidarbha. Raj shot the whole film ‘Khisa’ in Akola. The movie ‘Khisa’ has been selected for New York Indian Film Festival and will be screened there too. More while talking to ‘The Hitavada’ said, “The moment when my name was announced for the award exhilarated me. It is the dream of every filmmaker to win atleast one National Award during his career.

 

I consider myself fortunate enough as I got it as a debutant.” Of course, this is not the first national award that Raj More has received. He had won such award at 54th National Academy Award by Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi and Best Asia Art Award given by Korea. Raj More took the basic art education from JJ School of Arts, Mumbai. The filmmaker, a respected contemporary visual artist More said, “The award has given me a lot of confidence and recognition. This was my first film and I had invested two years in it. The movie has won many awards at various international festivals but after it got selected for the International Film Festival of India this year, I felt I could win the National Award. I would also like to thank my team, especially my writer, Director of Photography (DoP) and the editor for having full faith in my vision.” The story of ‘Khisa'’ revolves around a shirt. The child is proud of his pocket. It sets him apart from others of his age, whose pockets are not only smaller but also ordinary and similar to each other. The little boy does not understand the politics of symbolism that adults engage in, and his pocket soon becomes a point of contention amongst elders in the village.

 

This story of loss of innocence and coming-of-age of a young boy, is ironically, symbolic of the times we live in. Narrating how the film took a birth, Raj More said, “Even after becoming a successful painter, my primary interest was filmmaking. I was planning to work on a different film and had called Kailash Waghmare for casting. He told me that in his village there had been an incident of a child who had attempted to stand out from the crowd by wearing a shirt with an unusually large pocket. I realized that this was the story I wanted to tell, it's a very contemporary story in today point of view in society. ‘Khisa’ is my first short film as a Director. No one wanted to produce a short film. It is a very difficult to fund this film, because of this I produce this short film and my editor Santosh Maithani is also a producer with me. All my cast and crew who always support me on this project…specially my DoP Simarjit Singh Suman, Music-Parijat Chakraborty, Sound recordist-Kushal Sarda, edit- Santosh Maithani, writer- Kailash Waghmare and all my cast.”

 

To choose a child artist who was to play a lead role was the biggest challenge for Raj More and team. “Finally I went to my village in Akola and found a boy after conduction audition of 100-200 children. Vedant Shrisagar (child actor) is a lead actor. Kailash Waghmare played the role of father of the child in the film and also writer of this short film. Meenakshi Rathod, Shruti Madhydeep, Dr Sheshpal Ganvir is another cast. We shoot the entire film at my native village Anantapur and Balapur in Akola district,” said Raj More. PP Cine Production, Mumbai and Laaltippa Films presented the movie. Santosh Maithani produced it while Raj Pritam More directed. Kailash Waghmare is the writer while Santosh Maithani edited it. The others include in the making of film include Parijat Chakraborty- music, Kushal Sarda- Sound recordist. Cast- Kailash Waghmare, Meenakshi Rathod, Shruti Madhydeep, Dr Sheshpal Ganvir and Vedant Shrisagar (child actor)