Buddy’s quirky independent film saga.
An interview with auteur and film director Bauddhayan Mukherji
Bauddhayan ‘Buddy’ Mukherji is first and foremost a Director (independent film) who also has a full time job doing the same thing – but for TV ads – he gets given the script and makes the commercial. He has made more than 350 ads from agencies which are broadcast all around India and sometimes overseas. He did a major in Economics but he was immediately drawn into filmmaking and says a book he read when he was eleven years old by Satayajit Ray on childrens’ films led him to his current passion for filmmaking.
The Violin Player is one of two independent films Buddy Mukherji has made. The Violin Player was shown at Raindance Festival (24th) in London and was one of two independent films at the Zurich Film Festival, Switzerland and is going on to Den Haag (The Hague) tomorrow to be pro-moed there. Then Buddy and his wife Monalisa will head back to Mumbai on October 8th where they live.
Buddy’s other film is called Teenkahon (Three Obsessions) and is a dramatic movie which has appeared at 51 film festivals to date. It is available on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play so look out for it. Buddy watched VR films at Raindance’s 24th festival and agrees with many others that VR (virtual reality) is an emerging form of popular ways to garner visual entertainment, not to mention intellectual stimulation. He notes that analogue went to digital and “VR is the next jump on the switch”. One imagines new cinemas popping up where people can enjoy this genre!
So who are Buddy’s other influences? Buddy says that for any student of film, you can’t ignore people like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman. “I have it in me to create stories which are very Roald Dahlesque” he says after naming his other influences, so he is clearly in good company. He co-wrote The Violin Player with wife Monalisa, and she helped produce it. The finance was private. Very interestingly, Buddy likes to examine stories which reflect a type of “nothingness”. His next project is taking shape and is set against a backdrop of hills and mountains. As to the length of the next film, Buddy states laconically, “It will arrive at its length. I am just a player”. No new or seasoned filmmaker gives away too many secrets of his next oeuvre, if he wants to keep his audience guessing!
More of Buddy’s influences include Ritwick Ghatak who specialises in stories of downtrodden people and again, the aforementioned “nothingness” in their lives. These stories can teach people a lot about others’ “existence” and can be incredibly cathartic. He also mentioned to me the awesome film “Straw Dogs” directed by Sam Peckinpah as a movie that effuses “intense drama” and is regarded as a classic by many the world over. Buddy says he doesn’t ultimately have a favourite film:- he has many favourites.
Regarding his immediate family, Buddy declared he is the first to go into the world of film and film- making. Often in India, families work together and already his wife Monalisa is on board and no doubt others may follow soon as most films require a mass of operatives to make them, though this should not put off beginners as most film makers start small and make shorts which are not so demanding regarding numbers needed on set! Look out for Bauddhayan Mukherjis’ work and don’t forget there’s more on the way!
