Chaitanya Tamhane

The Disciple is a Marathi drama film written, directed, and edited by Chaitanya Tamhane and executive produced by Oscar winning director, Alfonso Cuar n. The film was awarded the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI, short for Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique) and the Best Screenplay award at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. It was also screened at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was named a winner of the Amplify Voices Award.Earlier this week, the film was nominated at the Film Independent Spirit Awards under the Best International Feature category. The Disciple will soon release exclusively on Netflix and stars Aditya Modak, Arun Dravid, Sumitra Bhave, Deepika Bhide Bhagwat, and Kiran Yadnyopavit in pivotal roles.The Disciple is the story of Sharad Nerulkar, who devoted his life to becoming an Indian classical music vocalist, diligently following the traditions and discipline of the old masters, his guru, and his father. But as the years go by, Sharad starts to wonder whether its really possible to achieve the excellence hes striving for. This is a journey of devotion, passion, and searching for the absolute in contemporary Mumbai.Speaking about his film, director Chaitanya Tamhane said, The story of The Disciple came from my own search for excellence and direction. Its about how many of us follow all the rules and yet, sometimes, find that something is missing. I was honoured to get the opportunity to work with a creative genius (and my mentor) like Alfonso Cuar n - who directed Roma and Gravity. And now, not only has Netflix acquired it to stream to a discerning global audience. Im truly grateful and humbled that global industry stalwarts have found this film worthy. A great deal of research goes into making a film and my aim as a filmmaker has always been to tell my story authentically within a dramatic framework. One also needs to afford the audience intelligence and intuition to be able to invest in your story, no matter what the cultural context may be. Im glad this approach worked out well for The Disciple.Executive Producer Alfonso Cuar n said, I believe Chaitanya is one of the most important new voices of contemporary cinema and Im thrilled The Disciple will be able to be enjoyed by audiences all around the world.Pratiksha Rao, Director, Content Acquisition, Netflix India said, We want to be the home for Indias finest films and filmmakers. As we expand our film slate and tell more diverse stories from across the country, we are thrilled to be the home for Chaitanya Tamhane's, The Disciple. The film is a beautiful story of aspiration, struggle, and self-doubt, and celebrates the magic of visual storytelling in the backdrop of Indian classical music, that we cant wait to share with the world.

The award season nominations have begun! Netflix's The White Tiger actor Adarsh Gourav, the breakout star of 2021, has been nominated for Best Male Lead at the 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards. Filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane's The Disciple has been nominated in the Best International Feature category.Laverne Cox, Barry Jenkins, and Olivia Wilde announced the nominations on Tuesday, January 26. The 36th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will air on April 22, three days before the Oscars.The White Tiger is a story about Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) who narrates his epic and darkly humorous rise from poor villager to successful entrepreneur in modern India. Cunning and ambitious, he jockeys his way into becoming a driver for Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who have just returned from America. Society has trained Balram to be one thing a servant so he makes himself indispensable to his rich masters. But after a night of betrayal, he realizes the corrupt lengths they will go to trap him and save themselves. On the verge of losing everything, Balram rebels against a rigged and unequal system to rise up and become a new kind of master. Based on the New York Times bestseller and 2008 Man Booker Prize-winning novel.The Disciple, written and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane and produced by Vivek Gomber of Zoo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., screened at the 58th New York Film Festival as part of the prestigious Main Slate.

The Disciple, written and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane and produced by Vivek Gomber of Zoo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., is set to screen at the 58th New York Film Festival as part of the prestigious Main Slate.Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema and is considered the most prestigious selection of films in the US. Since 1963, the New York Film Festival has brought new and important cinematic works from around the world and is a major platform for generating Oscar buzz as suggested by their past selections in the Main Slate of titles such as Parasite, Roma, Moonlight, Birdman, and Amour.The last Indian film to have been in the Main Slate of the New York Film Festival is Deepa Mehtas Fire in 1996.Along with a drive-in screening on Tuesday 29th September at 8 pm at the Queens Drive-In, The Disciple will screen virtually from September 29 at 8 pm ET through October 4 at 8 pm ET for US audiences only.

The jury has come to a decision. It's Chaitanya Tamhane's Marathi masterpiece Court that goes as India's official entry to the Oscars, beating other strong contenders including Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan , Avinash Arun's Killa and Kabir Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan . Tamhane's evocative film gently and non-judgmentally questions the loopholes in the Indian legal system. While the film's intrinsic merits cannot be questioned, one of the jury members for the Oscar contender Rahul Rawail has gone on record to question the jury's chairperson Amol Palekar's competence.

Rawail tweeted, "Just want to clarify that I am proud of Court and fully support its selection. I resigned from the Oscar jury because of Mr. Palekar's obnoxious behavior." Court's director Chaitanya Tamhane remained oblivious of the controversies.

Says Tamhane, "It's still hard for me to believe that my film has been so warmly received the world over. I began visiting sessions courts and discovered that the way the legal system and the courtroom proceedings have been shown in our films is completely contrary to reality." As Chaitanya met individuals trapped in legal battles for years, there emerged a pattern of tragic sometimes tragic-comic cases and lawsuits that didn't quite make sense.

Chaitanya was hooked. He had to tell the story of the pitfalls of the legal system. But there was no money. It was Chaitanya's childhood friend Vivek Gombar who agreed to fund Chaitanya's dream.

"If it wasn't for my friend Vivek Gombar's support, Court wouldn't have happened. We made the film on our own without the support of any corporate house. When we were shooting, we thought of only how to complete the film. Little did we know that the film would make such an impact," chuckles the young director, who at age 19 made a short film on plagiarism in Indian cinema.

Court seems all set to make the same global impact as Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox . Chaitanya isn't too sure of that. "I don't know if my film would eventually have the same global impact as The Lunchbox . But I can say this with certainty. Global audiences have got the point. At all the 30 international film festivals that the film has gone to, not once did we have to explain our cultural references to Western audiences." Chaitanya Tamhane's Court satirizes the Indian legal system with a virility that has won the world. And now Chaitanya's appetite is whetted. He wants to go at the other major remedial institutions.

Says the shy director, " Court is the first part of my institutional trilogy. I wanted to depict the sad state of those trapped in the legal machinery. I'd like to similar humanistic look at the medical and educational institutions." The idea, says Chaitanya, is not to mock the loopholes in the system. "I didn't set out to make a strong socio-political statement. I just wanted to tell the truth of how the endless court proceedings that sometimes take lifetimes, affects the common man. When I set out to research on the subject, I didn't know about the Indian legal system, or lok shairi which is such an important part of my film. The 3 and half years that the film took to make, has been a time of immense education for me."

Chaitanya Tamhane made his debut in the Indian film industry with Court and his first film has got an official entry into the Oscars. The jury has selected this courtroom drama as India's Official Entry to the 88th Academy Awards.

The decision was taken by the new jury headed by Amol Palekar and we hear that it was Suparn Sen, the secretary general of the Film Federation of India who announced the news.

Court which was released in multiple languages is a story about a singer facing charges of abetment to suicide which later unfolds a lot more drama. The film not only received mass appreciation when it was released but has also won several awards at film festivals.

Starring Usha Bane, Vivek Gomber, Pradeep Joshi, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Shirish Pawar, Vira Sathidar among others, Court also received the 62nd National Award for the Best Feature Film.

Bangalore is never likely to see Court, Chaitanya Tamhane's National award winning film about the paralyzing paradoxes of our legal system.

On May 1 when Court was supposed to open in Bangalore, the film was forcibly stopped from screening, apparently because of legal issues.

Dismayed director Chaitanya Tamhane protested, "The non-release in Bangalore has nothing to do with my film's content. What I'm told is that Marathi films are not released in Bangalore." Chaitanya however is not sure if his film could be said to be in Marathi alone. "My film is multi-lingual. Marathi is one of the languages spoken by the characters along with Hindi, English and Gujarati. But the censor certificate says the language of my film is Marathi. And there is a problem releasing Marathi films in Bangalore." Apparently, some local associations in Bangalore attack exhibitors who screen films in certain regional languages.

Says Chaitanya, "No exhibitor wanted to take a risk. I think these days' exhibitors are exercising self-censorship. Even with the Censor Board's approval they don't want to release films that may cause a problem on release." Coincidentally, Kamal Haasan's new Tamil release Uttama Villain was also stopped from screening in Chennai on Friday.

Condemning all such witch-hunting Chaitanya says, "There is something known as artistic freedom, and everybody should respect that. I don't think any kind of politics should come into play in any work of art, especially when it's all set to open before the public. Personally I am very unhappy about people in Bangalore not being able to see my film." Until the last minute on Friday Chaitanya and his producers were hoping to sort out the issue in Bangalore. "We kept hoping we'd manage to release the film. Now, I don't think Court will be released in Bangalore. That's a pity because after the National award the response to our film everywhere has been very very good, beyond our expectations. The response has been very encouraging. We couldn't ask for anything better." Chaitanya is in Delhi on Sunday to receive the National award for Court . Expressing great joy he says, "The National award for Best Film is a game-changing event for our film. It really got us a much bigger audience than we'd have got otherwise."

Chaitanya Tamhane's Marathi-Hindi-Gujarati-English language debut film Court which has recently won the National award for best film is well on the way to being the most feted Indian film abroad.

Chaitanya, who comes from a family of non-cineastes, has just returned from the New York from the 44th Annual New Directors/New Films festival where Court was screened to rave reviews.

Jet lagged and still incredulous about the success his debut film has received globally, in spite of having taken it to 30 international film festivals so far, Chaitanya says, "The New York experience was unique because this is a festival for the first and second films of directors. Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan's debut films were shown here. It's still hard for me to believe that my film has been so warmly received the world over." While making a film on the vagaries of the Indian legal system, Chaitanya didn't think he was making a social comment. "I wanted to tell the story that I wanted to tell. It wasn't as if I had set out to tell make a social comment. I just got interested in and started researching on it." Chaitanya went through hundreds of cases. "I began visiting the sessions courts and discovered that the way the legal system and the courtroom proceedings have been shown in our films is completely contrary to reality." As Chaitanya met individuals trapped in legal battles for years, there emerged a pattern of tragic sometimes tragic-comic cases and lawsuits that didn't quite make sense.

Chaitanya was hooked. He had to tell the story of the pitfalls of the legal system. But there was no money.

It was Chaitanya's childhood friend Vivek Gombar who agreed to fund Chaitanya's dream.

"If it wasn't for Vivek's support, Court wouldn't have happened. We made the film on our own without the support of any corporate house. When we were shooting we thought of only how to complete the film. Little did we know that the film would make such an impact," chuckles the young director who at age 19 made a short film on plagiarism in Indian cinema.

You won't find anything remotely unoriginal in Chaitanya's work. Which is why he is a little disturbed when Court is referred to as "another Lunchbox ." Thoughtfully Chaitanya says, "I am not too sure whether my film would eventually have the same global impact as The Lunchbox. But I can say this with certainty, global audiences have got the point. At all the 30 international film festivals that the film has gone to, not once did we have to explain our cultural references to Western audiences."