Making of Banaras, at the Colchester College

My talk at the Colchester College, UK on the 6th Nov 'o6




It was a cold and foggy but dry evening that we traveled to the oldest city of UK. Colchester has a population of 150,000 and at one time used to be the capital of Romans.

The event was organized by the Chartered Management Institute, a professional body of distinguished professional managers and was hosted by Colchester College.

The evening program was around my talk on the “Making of Banaras”.

I talked about the genesis of the movie, my connections with Banaras and shared with the audience the intricacies of film making including the contributions of various departments. I went to great lengths to explain the contributions of lighting and cameraman, art director, costume designer, sound recording, background music and the actors.

They all wanted to know about my experience of dealing with the big actors which went in great details. I had no idea that so many foreigners were interested so much in film making.

Jay Pandya, who had just seen the movie along with his full family shared with the audience as to how his grand mother, generally an ardent critic of bollywood masala films loved every moment of Banaras and the whole family was in tears in the end. One could easily see the impact of Banaras on his face.




A section of the audience

In the end, as the president would share with me later, the audience gave its longest ovation, ever given to any such event in their history.

I am extremely grateful to Anton, the president of Chartered Management Institute for the opportunity to share my experience of making Banaras.

During the trip a copy of the movie was presented to the earl of Edinburgh in person.

The movie has also been officially invited to be exhibited during the Wichwick music festival in Cheltanam during ’07.