Giving competition to ‘PK’ in Goan theatres is a Konkani
film, ‘Home Sweet Home’. Yes, it has already run successfully for the past week
after its release on December 26, 2014 and is already 50 percent booked for the
coming week. While the cast and crew were true to their work and believed that
the film would make waves in Goa, they didn’t expect to break any records.
Surprisingly, it did by completing 55 sold out shows and playing in every
theatre in Goa including Ravindra Bhavan in Margao, Vasco, Sanquelim and
Curchorem.
The film is directed by Swapnil Shetkar and produced by
Swapnil and Madhav Gad under the banner of Go Goa Gollywood Productions. The
team of ‘Home Sweet Home’ went a step ahead by promoting the film in a big way
before and after its release. “We screened the trailers before films in
theatres in Goa which created an interest in movie goers. Besides that, we used
different social mediums like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp to spread the word
around and this was the first time that a Konkani film had ten billboards up in
the state. We also had regular advertisements, posters and banners around the
state,” says Madhav.
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Interestingly, the film garnered so much publicity that the
audience was not enticed to watch the film with free passes. “For the first
show itself, we took our families to the theatre by paying the ticket. We
thought of starting the trend from our own homes. The trailers and the actors
were enough to attract the audience and we didn’t have to hand out free passes
to anyone. We felt that the content should be great to pull in the audience and
we are running houseful, thanks to the audience,” adds Madhav.
Swapnil says, “The films has had 55 successful shows across
Goa and we wanted to make a film that people could connect to. Before starting
the film, we were thinking about how to get movie lovers to the theatre. I am
very happy that Goan films are being appreciated by the audience. I believe the
film should good well with the home audience first before making movies in
other languages.”
Aryan Khedekar who plays the antagonist in the film says,
“Bollywood films do well because of the entertainment. Though there might 30
per cent of tiatr lovers, they are the ones who will surely watch a film so we
thought of combining that with Natak lovers and brought onboard Tiatr star John
D’Silva and Natak star Rajdeep Naik.”
Rajdeep has been getting feedback from the audience who
loved the film and are happy to watch it again, “I got a call from one movie
lover who said that he watched the film five times in the last week. I asked
him why he loved it so much and he said that it touched his heart and that he
will watch it again.”
The two hours, ten minutes long film also stars Satish
Gawas, Damu Naik, Luis Bachan and Prince Jacob. Mohit Kakodkar is the
cinematographer, Sanjay Naik is the executive producer, music direction is by
Rohan Naik and art direction by Satish Gaonkar.
The team is in talks to screen the film in Doha, London and
other cities of the Middle East and Europe after being screened in Mumbai,
Bangalore and Delhi. “We have received offers to distribute the film in
different markets. We are still finalising,” says Swapnil who has assured a
Part 2 to the film, once the loans are cleared and the money is recovered.
