15 months ago, I quit my job as a journalist/film critic.
I didn’t give up my two bedroom flat.
It was a huge leap of faith forward.
I knew all my life savings – provident fund, gratuity and insurance – would disappear within a year. I was hopeful that I would get paid for the work I had done over the last three years. Except that the producer disappeared when it was time to write the cheque.
Shit happens. And, Murphy is the plumber who doesn’t show up when your flush is down.
Everyone in this town has stories of struggle. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who got taken for a ride. Blame it on my thirst for adventure. I actually don’t mind exploring where the ride has brought me today.
My last film X Past is Present was quite a mad experiment that involved collaborating with ten other intense, crazy, talented storytellers. We had made a film like none other – a serialized anthology – one story that tried to build a bridge between different genres and disparate styles of storytelling. It had taken up almost three years of my life.
I spent the next two months catching up with films at festivals in Goa, Kerala and friends in Chennai. I caught up with three films that reinforced everything I had always believed. Taxi – shot in a car rigged with cameras in a city the filmmaker was banned from filming. Victoria – a single shot film shot in three attempts over three nights. Tangerine – a film shot on an iPhone 5S.
Turning 39 in February, I had to take stock of my life and where I wanted to go.
There were a bunch of movies I wanted to make, stories I couldn’t wait to share with the world. But I hated the wait.
I am not a fan of the “business model” where artists create something for a buck, middlemen price it at 100 and later, crib about the market or the film.
One of the reasons I loved Begin Again was because it was a musical Fuck You to the system and the middlemen.
The talented Anjali Patil, one of the first friends I made in Bombay became a monk. The actress gave up her flat and went to the mountains and the monasteries. When I met her earlier this year, she told me I should try it.
She told me I would save 50,000 a month on rent and could use that money to travel instead. Just a couple of months earlier, my fellow collaborator on Good Night Good Morning, Seema Rahmani who had already planted the idea in my head. Don’t get attached to the house, she said.
Now, I had moved to Bombay two years ago.
Before that, I had spent an average of three lakh rupees and less than a month of shoot in all for three films put together (X was a lot less – I shot my anchor portion of 40 minutes of the 105 min film for 80,000 rupees). Yes, less than 30 days. All films put together. But here, I had spent 10 lakhs on just rent over the last two years.
I was waiting for cheques to come and projects to happen. With just a year to go before I turned 40. I had made only three films in 17 years (since I wrote the first draft of That Four Letter Word, one month before I took up my job at The Hindu).
Considering that I have always written films I could shoot in two or three weeks, it was actually possible to make four feature films in a year with a plan in place.
Dave: But movies cost millions of dollars to make.
Robert K. Bowfinger: That’s after gross net deduction profit percentage deferment ten percent of the nut. Cash, every movie cost $2,184.
I put up that plan in February and drew up a slate of films I could make this year.
Long story short, I’m shooting the first one – a musical – in Shillong, Guwahati and on a train to Bombay between July 4-9. Hopefully, a Hindi adaptation in Chandigarh in September.
I have a silent anti-suicide film planned in Istanbul and Tokyo. Elsa and Allen, we must do it.
I want to shoot a surreal psychological thriller in the desert and highways of Rajasthan.
There’s the long due sci-fi thriller Ek Nayi Duniya that demands a remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Maybe I could crowd-fund it.
I’ve lived with most of these scripts for months. Some, for years. I’m done waiting to make these films happen. I’m going TO them.
I’ve had enough of penny-wise pound-foolish producers who always have a budget for marketing but none to pay the artists. So, if the only way to make films happen is to give up the flat and be a movie monk, so be it.
Hope to find equally mad travellers on the road.
Yes, people. I’m moving out of my comfort zone. My flat. I couldn’t throw a house-warming party but there will be a house burning.
I’m going to live out of a suitcase backpack for the next six months. Or a year.
If I can do 1748 kms across South India on a motorcycle in a week, maybe I can do 10,000 kms over the next year with trains, planes and automobiles. Or so, I hope.
I love the road. I love movies. I love exploring. I love adventure. I love sharing stories.
So watch this space. This blog will be my new home. I promise to be more regular here. I will have a lot to share over the next few months.
I might be in your town. Even otherwise, feel free to invite me. I’m teaching a fiction writing course in Bangalore in the middle of all this. All I need is an excuse to visit a different place.
“Better to go out and do everything you wanted to do at 40 than regret not doing it at 50,” a friend told me earlier this evening. I’m not 40 yet.
But when I do turn 40, the road will be a great place to find myself.
Congratulations on such a brave step,Sushish. All the best- A long time fan of your writings and movies.
Congratulations on such brave step, Sudhish. All the very best.
– a long time fan of your writings and movies.
Thank you. 🙂
I’m sure you are going to cherish this phase of your life more than anything else. God speed.
I hope to. 🙂
This is inspiring.
Thanks and all the best sudish.
Thanks!! 🙂
I’m rooting for you. All the very best, Sudhish! 🙂
Also, you should write more.
Thank you. That’s sweet. 🙂
All the best , you will do great! Wishing you all luck! If you need a place to stay in Mysore or Coimbatore, let me know
– Arundhati, a fan.
Thanks a ton. Will take you up on the offer. Should start making a database.
Good luck with your journey!
Thank you.
Hi Sudhish, I am a passionate traveler, writer and a hacker. I have been travelling around North, West and south India for an year now and it would be my pleasure to meet people like you and have a sit. I share my stories here http://www.thelifeimprovised.com . Me too stays in Bangalore, lets meet up sometime and have a sit over coffee….
Hope to catch up. Cheers. 🙂
Stranger alert! Saw your blog on a friend’s feed and am startled by the vision and the guts. I’m a writer as well. Worked in films for a while and just got my first book out. I live in Bangalore. Where and when is your workshop here? Can spread the word. All the best!
Thanks Meghna. Will catch up in Bangalore. Not exactly a workshop. It’s a regular course at a college.
Hi Sudhish, I have been a follower of your writings for a while now and as I read this post, my respect for you has increased. Good luck for your future endeavors. Going by your name, I guess you are a fellow Konkani and also, I live in Bangalore. Would be great to meet you if you’re around, would love to attend your workshop as I am a budding fiction writer.
Regards,
Harsha
I’m teaching a regular course in a college for students. Will surely be tweeting about workshops. 🙂
This is sure one huge leap of faith, but I’m sure The Backpack is going to be the bestest part of your life yet! Good luck with all you hope to achieve within this one fantastic year- sounds like something out of a… movie 😀 Here’s to crazy adventures and even crazier fellow adventurers!
Thanks! 🙂
May the force be with you!
Looking for excuses to invite you, and waiting for the updates 🙂
-Forever and always,
Your fan girl
Thank you again despite the revised fan girl status. Haha!
May the force be with you!
Looking for excuses to invite you, and waiting for the updates 🙂
-Forever and always,
Your biggest and a very long-time fan girl
Thank you! 🙂
Hi. Got to your page from Raja’s post on FB. I’m from Shillong, and though I don’t live there anymore, if you need anything I can try and help.
Yes, please mail me a bunch of places we need to shoot to capture shillong… Minus the stereotypes. 🙂 madeinmadras at gmail dot com
Wow! such an intriguing, inspiring story so far, am sure it gets more interesting as years pass by.Happy 40th year, You will rock!
I am based in Bangalore, please let me know if you need any help (have a car and a room which can be put to use for your movie-making etc)
Good Luck Sudhish
All good luck in the world to you..I stay in Bangalore too..let me know I owe you for my 1st exp of movie fest@bangalore..await ur arrival in Bangalore..let me know I Wil b der for any assistance..am fan of ur writing nd films..cheers.
Vara
Congratulations. I am glad I came across your post. its a brave world out there. I can feel the trepid nervousness, leaving my cushioned Investment Banking job to become a film-maker 2 years back. Commerce is required to sell the art, but the art has to have a soul for its own existence.
Best wishes for your exciting new journey
Sudhish, this is inspiring. Good luck with your journey. And, I want to help/assist you with the psychological thriller that you want to shoot in Rajasthan. Do let me know how can I help.
Regards,
Nimit
I just can’t forgive myself for having found this post this late! I’ve spent hours poring (forget reading) over your pieces and was pretty bummed that I wouldn’t be seeing too much of it, but now I’m glad this post happened. It’s wonderful, and do let me know if you take potatoes who write on your journey 😀 Happy 40th, oh and have an amazing time backpacking! 🙂
Wish I had the balls to do what u did .. awesome .. all the very best .. I am sure you will not regret this decision .. probably the best you did in life .. in case you are wondering who the fuck this is .. I was your neighbour in chennai when you visited your uncle’s house behind dav
sudhishkamath’s motorcycle diaries!>>>>>>
Expecting a travelogue piece of literature from you n sure celluloid as well.