After assisting
in the direction of Hollywood and
Bollywood films, Aniket Naik from Canacona came back home to direct his debut
feature film in Konkani. The film, ‘Amizade’, is based on a love story and the
bond between four friends. One of Aniket’s main criteria for the film was that
the cast had to have a majority of newcomers. The film stars John D’Silva and
Rajiv Hede and newcomers Gaurav Pokle, Siddhant Kanekar, Dhruv Sincro, Chetan
Upadhay and Vaishnavi Pilankar. ‘Amizade’has given new talent a boost in Goa.
“John D’Silva and Rajiv Hede are great actors and have done many films in Goa.
The all Goan cast was my first priority and I wanted to give new actors a
platform. Many actors have been stage and theatre actors but will be making
their film debut with this film,” says Aniket. ‘Amizade’ has been produced by
Sachin Verlekar of OM Creative Film Works in association with Bymistake Motion
Pictures.
Aniket is no stranger
to the film industry as has been working behind the scenes for the last 11
years in Mumbai. Originally from Canacona, he is currently settled in Margao
and has worked on several ad films and feature films as an assistant director.
“I was 200 percent sure of making a Konkani film and this feels like a
homecoming for me. I started as second assistant director of an English film –
‘Hidden’, featuring Christopher Atkins. I was part of the Hindi film industry
with films like ‘Ferrari Ki Sawari’ and ‘John Day’ and then a Marathi film,
‘Hridayanath’, starring Jackie Shroff. Making a film in Konkani is paying
tribute to my roots with the filmmaking skills I have learnt on the job,” says
this mass media graduate.
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The film has been
entirely shot in Goa and will be released on September 23, 2018; the trailer
will be officially out few days before the release. “We are planning to release
the film in not just multiplexes but even one screen theatres simultaneously.
The film will be available for the audience in every part of Goa. The first
trailer of the film was released at the Goa Marathi Film Festival that draws a
huge crowd, including members of the Hindi and Marathi film fraternity and it
was the perfect opportunity for us to show what a Konkani film made in Goa has
to offer,” says Aniket.
Speaking about his experience
working with new talent, Aniket says,“It was fabulous working with the cast.
They were facing the camera for the first time and yet they have done a great
job with their acting. We conducted workshops for them before beginning the
shooting, especially delivery of dialogues. They strictly followed what I
instructed themand everyone got into the flow smoothly. There is so much talent
in Goa and the actor poolshould not be limited to just 40-50 actors.”
John D’Silva has
worked with several noted actors and shares his experience of working with
young talent. “It was a nice experience working with the team of ‘Amizade’.
Director Aniket Arun Naik has put in great efforts to make this film and take
it to a higher level. The whole team of ‘Amizade’ was like a family and we all
enjoyed ourselves during the making of the film.”
Gaurav
Pokle will be making his film debut with ‘Amizade’. “I am an amateur artiste
and my only performance was restricted to Dubsmash and uploading videos on
Facebook and Instagram. Working with the entire team of ‘Amizade’ was a dream
come true. As the movie name ‘Amizade’ speaks about friendship, I have
experienced true friendship on the sets and today my co-artistes are among my
best friends. The director and producer never let us feel we were hand-picked
amateur artistes. The movie has been shot in most undiscovered locations in
Goa. The Konkani industry needs to encourage the youth to invest their time
into acting and other performing arts. ‘Amizade’ is a must watch movie for all
Goans,” says Gaurav.
