A big win for Massan at 68th Cannes Film Festival

Filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan has been making headlines worldwide for the much acclaimed Masaan  his first-ever feature film, which not only received a five-minute standing ovation at the 68th Cannes Film Festival, but also managed to win the FIPRESCI, the International Jury of Film Critics prize, and the Promising Future prize. It is the first Indian film to get an award in an official Cannes category in 15 years.

And despite the plot revolving around the small Indian city of Varanasi, Masaan (crematorium grounds), has left the world stunned. “The narrative is rooted in a small city (Varanasi) and yet it talks about relationships which are universal  between a father and a daughter, father and a son. It’s about love and friendship, emotions that transcend boundaries,” says the director who was born and brought up in Hyderabad.

Neeraj finished his schooling from the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Shivarampally and graduation from the CBIT, and says his interest in non commercial Indian cinema began at home.“When I was a young boy, my mother and sister used to watch films that were part of parallel cinema  movement on Doordarshan   and I would often join them,” he says. Raised in a Maharashtrian family, Neeraj was forced to learn Telugu only when he was ragged in college. And when it comes to Telugu films, he prefers the older ones  like Geetanjali and Sagara Sangamam.

But serious filmmaking came to him much later in life, when he decided to quit his corporate job, a six-figure salary following a burnout sparked by creative dissatisfaction. “At the same time, I was also writing for a film blog called, Passion for Cinema, which was helmed by Anurag Kashyap. He liked how I wrote and critiqued international films and suggested I come and work with him as an assistant,” says Neeraj, who not only looks up to Anurag as a mentor but says that he owes his career in films to him.

“For two-and-a-half years on the sets of Gangs of Wasseypur, I completely let go and got myself involved in everything  from research to production and even the editing of the film. It was like the film school experience I never had,” he says.