Virat Marwaha: A ray of hope for better cinema

Virat Marwaha while posing on a bike!

My friend Virat Marwaha, Jalandhar based multi-talented lad who loves directing cinema. To explore then he is the one of those directors who loves highlighting serious cinema. Keeping comical themes aside, he has directed few short movies based on a couple of serious social issues, which have also won applauds at various film festivals. He dares and loves throwing light over issues related to society and can go to any extent to bring justice to them. I was privileged covering such a dynamic personality with high-thinking. He shares about his journey of film-making and acting so far.

Tell something about your passion of acting/directing

I have been doing acting and theatre since school and later in college youth festivals etc. Later, I moved to Australia to pursue my higher studies and started working there as a bankruptcy officer. In 2012, I finally decided to pursue my acting career again and made ‘Jal Waheguru Ji’. I signed a film right after that but it never started even after the star studded press conference and ‘mahurat’ shot. I went to Mumbai to get registered in various organizations, register my scripts and titles of films which is mandatory before working in Bollywood.  I then moved back to Australia and started doing short films once again

Was becoming an actor/director your childhood dream?

Yes, becoming an actor was my childhood dream, writing and direction just followed. But, I still consider myself as an actor first before considering myself a director or writer. In-fact I think I can’t do any other job with so much love and passion except this. I may be good at other jobs but I am not sure if I will be able to do them for long but acting, films, I just love them I can do this all my life

Your first project
My first project was a film on ‘wrestling’, it never got released. But then on one fine day I thought of making a film on 1984 Sikh genocide in Delhi titled Jal Waheguru Ji. It was highly appreciated among the masses and the artist fraternity and the movie won Toronto Film Festival too

Why do you always take up social issues? Do you like directing serious cinema?

I love making meaningful cinema , I guess I have been doing  theatre all my school and college life so I have a special place in my heart for satires and satirical comedy , raising social issues , scripts delivering  messages to the masses ,  I love directing and acting in all genres

Tell something about your latest project ‘SINGH’
Singh is a very emotional film, almost every Sikh guy who went from India to abroad can relate to it. It’s a story of a Sikh boy who is going through a very emotional face when he moves to abroad. I get so many emotional messages daily saying that how this film touched people, makes me feel proud that I made such film which can change people in a better way

Virat's one of the movie's poster!

Do you think these short movies on social issues can be made into full-fledged feature films?
Yes they can be made in a feature film format and they will be beautiful movies with true emotions but the bitter truth is they will suffer commercially, first of all its very hard to find producers for such topics with social awareness , I have seen many good scripts and senior writers struggling to find producers for serious cinema and topics with social awareness

Did you try to organize screenings of your short movies at festivals or in educational institutions etc?
I have sent it to various film festivals across the globe, including some festivals where it will be the only non English film

Why don’t you prefer giving chance to other actors to act in your movies?
The films I have written till now didn’t require much star cast and  also the budget of short films are not much, so I try to get the best use of the resources , so if you have a director who can act then why not? My film Singh witnessed some brilliant performances by other actors , it has Lindsey Loon from California, but yes my upcoming projects  will be with a greater production value and new and known faces from industry

Where do you see Punjabi film industry in next ten years to come?
 I see Punjabi film industry at new heights in coming time, I have seen some brilliant performances this year and also audience is too welcoming other genres besides comedy too. I would love to see parallel cinema doing good commercially in Punjab in coming time

Besides making short movies, what are your interests?
I love listening to good music, reading books.  I am a health freak, so working out, keeping myself fit , and travelling .

Your take on crimes against women! Are you willing to raise similar issues in your movies?
I think women deserve a lot of respect, I have always believed that women is more powerful than men, there contribution to the society to the families, to the country is far more than any Man out there.  I find crime against women the most preposterous thing in our society and it’s not something that you hear or witness rarely, it’s very often. I will definitely make a movie on crime against women with a very strong message and very soon. 

Note: The interview was originally published in The Times of India supplement, Jalandhar Times.