When reel witnessed real and the guns were silenced by the guitars
One of the most promising films of the year ‘Aalaap’ directed by Manish Manikpuri and produced by Nishant Tripathi and Abhishek Mishra of Shri Shankaracharya Arts was shot in dense forests of Chhattisgarh and the borders of the volatile state. The shoot went on for two months. And now as the movie is ready and on the verge of its release on July 27, all over the nation, the actors and crew share some adventurous memorable true experiences they had while filming it.
“Some sequences the movie were shot at Saletekri , near Kanha Tiger Leopard Kanha Tiger Reserve. This area is very near Dantewada, which is a red zone, meaning a naxal infested area. Like other Indian locales where film shootings take place, we also had a large number of intrigued spectators everyday while shooting. They were localites who were watching the shooting for the sake of it. But it gave me goose bumps when later we heard that amidst the crowd, there were some Maoists who had hidden their identity and were watching us from close quarters who were trying to see what we were doing. Fortunately, they liked what they saw,” says Amit Purohit, one if the leads in the movie. The crew was informed about it by the police and some villagers.
“I was little worried to know about it. I was afraid that if they don’t like our dialogues, we may have to face some problems,” says Abhishek Mishra, the producer of Aalaap.
Furthermore, being a jungle, many a time, leopards and snakes were seen near the set. The actors, though protected, were worried a bit. “But whatever the situation may be, the arrangement made by the team was great. I never went for a shoot to such place. It was beautiful and dangerous. But we enjoyed it,” expresses Rituparna Sengupta who plays a pivotal role in the film.
And sparks did fly when the gun met the guitar. The suspected naxals did watch the shooting of all the songs as well and were seen enjoying the same. “When one sees the film, they will realise that we were indeed successful with our endeavour,” says Harsh Rajput, even as he remains tightlipped about the storyline.
But from what we saw of the posters of the film and the promos that have been doing the rounds on TV, one realises that the guitar decides to take on the gun and silence the sound of the gunpowder with the strums of the guitar strings.
Aalaap starring Amit Purohit, Pitobash, Harsh Rajput, Aabid Shamim, Abhimanyu Singh, Ruhi Chaturvedi, Rituparna Sengupta, Onkardas Manikpuri, Murli Sharma and Raghuveer Yadav releases on July 27.
