Director Rohan Kanawade's delicately-layered, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning debut feature, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), was released in Indian theatres last week. The film’s tenderness attracted directors Vikramaditya Motwane and Nikkhil Advani—who are now becoming regular members of this little coterie of content-driven filmmakers backing indie projects (their last stint was Stolen)—to lend their names as Executive Producers. The EP list also includes actor Sai Tamhankar and acclaimed Marathi-filmmaker Nagraj Manjule.

Sabar Bonda tells the story of an unmarried, closeted man who has to go through both grief and shame as he spends ten days in his ancestral village, after his father’s demise, surrounded by conservative relatives who won’t stop bugging him about his marriage. A childhood friend, however, gives him solace. A personal incident in Rohan’s life sparked the idea. “In 2016, my father passed away, and my mom and I had to go back to my village in Maharashtra for his last rites. I had been avoiding going there for almost ten years because I knew that everybody would start talking about my marriage,” shares Rohan. “I had to endure all of it because my mother was also grieving, and she needed these relatives for support. But sometimes I used to get so angry that I started imagining that if I had a friend in this village, I would just sneak out with him and escape this pressure. That’s how this idea shaped up.”

The result is a meditative study of love and loss in the backdrop of a sleepy, Maharashtrian village. “The film’s silences speak so much,” says Nikkhil. “When I see filmmakers like Rohan, I feel like boosting their vision because the kind of films they are making now, we too wanted to make when we started out.” Calling it a “beautiful love story,” Sai says, “It was very gentle and subtle.” Nagraj, on the other hand, admits that he felt bad about not knowing that a Marathi film had garnered so many accolades at film festivals. “A film can be in many languages, but film itself is a language and Rohan understands how to use it,” he says. While the grammar of Indie films has space for personal expression, when it comes to the mainstream, the window is narrow. The current commercial cinema feels more like an amalgamation of elements, more a “project” and less a film with a coherent vision. “At least they have finally accepted what they always wanted to do: make money,” quips Nikkhil. “When Vikram (Vikramaditya Motwane), Imtiaz (Ali), or Anurag (Kashyap) were making films, the industry might have lauded itself by thinking that they were in the process of making art. That veil has lifted now. Personally, I hope the mainstream makes a lot of money so that they can give independent filmmakers some of it, even in the name of CSR.”

But funding isn’t the only hurdle for an independent film. “I think protecting the director’s voice is the most difficult,” explains Vikramaditya. “When we try to raise money for a film, a lot of people and a lot of factors come up that want to alter a director’s vision. More and more, the individual producer system breaks down and corporate financing takes over; filmmaking will become less passionate.” He also offers a solution. “I think what we need here is the equity model, which is very prevalent in the West, where many individual producers give smaller shares to fund an indie film, thus reducing the risks,” he says.

The EPs, however, also believe that indie has something to learn from the mainstream. “Commercial filmmakers know and study their audience,” says Vikramaditya. “I think independent directors should learn that. Look at Lokah; it is a perfect example of a content-driven film that knows its audience perfectly. What will you label that film? It is a superhero film, but it also has elements of a stoner-comedy, folklore, and mythology. Moreover, all of it is genuine and speaks directly to a viewer.” Nagraj emphasizes the importance of having a balance. “I understand filmmaking is a business, but it shouldn’t always be about making money,” he says. “For every 100 money-making projects, I hope there can be at least ten films that come from the heart.”