Around six years ago, Siddharth Chauhan discovered an uninhabited - locked portion of a magnificent heritage British-era building in Shimla which once belonged to the Delhi & London Bank in 1905-06 while looking for a space where he could build a set for his short film. The staircase, tall corridors, bay windows, ageing wood – everything about it intrigued him so much that he not only made the short film there but also imagined a feature film. That's how Amar Colony was a fictitious story of a few inhabitants of that space born.
Starring Nimisha Nair, Sangeeta Agrawal, and Usha Chauhan., the film revolves around three women going through their mundane lives, representing the human condition in a chawl.
The film just had its world premiere at the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where it was the only Indian film to be part of the First Feature Competition this year.
A short chat with Siddarth on the same.
How did you ideate the cast?
I wanted my characters to look real and believable. I also wanted Amar Colony to be full of diversity - in terms of the language they speak, the clothes they wear, and the gods they believe in. My casting & creative director, Ankit Rathore, and I spent around three months looking for our main cast. We auditioned many actors from Himachal, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Mumbai, and even NRIs and artists from other film industries like Malayalam. That's how we found Nimisha Nair (from FTII), Ayush Shrivastava and Rohit Agrawal (from Mumbai), Sangeeta Agrawal (from the US), Sreejith Vijay (from Kerala), Deepak Sharma (from Kasauli) and Usha Chauhan and Yash Thakur (from Shimla).
How was the experience of shooting the first full-length film?
Stressful but fulfilling. Whenever you are bringing your script to life with the help of so many others, it is very empowering and somewhat addictive too. It is also very delusional because life outside the set is never the same.
As an indie maker what are the learnings?
It’s a roller coaster ride! I started making short films in 2013 while I was also pursuing my MBA. My goal was to make one short film a year and I was very content with that speed and format. Suddenly in 2016 I thought of making a feature and wrote a draft of Amar Colony in 2017. I have learnt many lessons - a major one being that one film does not naturally lead you to another and your past experience may not help you in your next one!
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Your upcoming projects?
I am writing another feature film - a murder mystery in pahari language, which I want to shoot in Shimla in the monsoons next year.
I am also writing a period drama series set in a unique world of tribals that has never been seen on screen.