Every film is made with hundreds of moments of serendipity, trust, and kindness. Ours was too.
I had wanted to adapt my father’s short story “Joseph” into an independent film for many years. In 2018, things started to fall into place. We had a director in Lulu (Susant Misra – IMDB), and a script was starting to take shape. We had to start getting the crew in place.
As regards the selection of the cast, I cannot help but recollect how Victor Banerjee (IMDB) came to be associated with the film.
During our internal discussions, he was the unanimous choice for the role of Father O’Hara. I did not know him personally but was aware of his accomplishments as an actor in various films. Hence, we decided to approach him through his uncle. He was reluctant to meet me as had some bitter experiences with many fly-by-night operators. Though disappointed, I wrote a personal note to him and requested his uncle to give the same to him. Thereafter, I returned to Bhubaneswar in order to prepare for announcing the launch of the film.
On 8 July 2018, as I was going to the venue to formally launch the film, I got a text message from Victor indicating that he had read my letter, wanted to be associated with the project and that I could announce that he had agreed to be a part of my journey into film production. All this happened without me or anyone from my team having met him or talked to him. Throughout the planning and shooting of the film, we had such good rapport with him that we were able to complete the shooting two days ahead of schedule.
Making the film has reinforced my faith in human relationships. It was like my father was pleased with me and guiding me all the way.