DAMaN director Vishal Maurya: Success of my film could be a ray of hope for Odia filmmakers

In the past few years, after the introduction of OTT platforms in India, the viewership of regional cinema has increased across the country. But one of the regional industries, which has largely stayed away from the OTT renaissance was the Odia film industry. Not only on OTT, but many Odia films don’t get screens in Odisha as well.

But, this changed when DAMaN was released on November 4. The movie, made at a cost of less than Rs 1 crore, saw a slow start at the box office, but it blew up following word-of-mouth just like Rishabh Shetty's Kantara. The demand for the movie increased to such a level that for the first time in decades, screens were added for an Odia movie even in multiplex theaters and the movie was released in other states as well. Many people have demanded the creators to release this movie in Hindi as well.

Based on true incidents, DAMaN focuses on the journey of a doctor who gets posted in a tribal area in Malkangiri district of Odisha and his struggle to eradicate malaria from the area and convince people to visit health centres. Directed by Vishal Maurya and Debi Prasad Lenka, the movie has been made tax-free by the Odisha government.

We talk to Vishal Maurya about his experiences while shooting the movie and his vision of the movie.

Excerpts: 

What was your inspiration behind making this movie? 

In 2020, co-director Devi Prasad Lenka and I had gone to Malkangiri to shoot a documentary on the malaria eradication program in the district, which was called DAMAN by the health department. During our stay, we got inspired by how government employees from different departments, including doctors, ASHA workers, anganwadi workers, forest officers and police, were working on the grassroot levels to spread awareness about malaria. They used to take at least 2 to 3 hours time every single day to visit remote villages and make people aware of things like mosquito nets too.

So, when producer Deependra Samal told us to make something unique, we decided to make a movie on DAMaN to highlight the works of all the government employees who are trying to spread awareness.

It took a lot of time for us to write the movie, which would have malaria eradication as its core. It was also difficult to restrict the film to 2 hours, keeping in mind the commercial perspectives too. 

How was your experience shooting in hilly areas?

We faced a lot of difficulties not only while shooting the movie but also while choosing the actors. We cast the lead actors, Babushaan Mohanty and Dipanwit Dasmohapatra from Bhubaneswar, while others were mostly from Koraput Film Society, and Jeypore Film Society. We also cast a few of the local talent in the film.

As the hills were far away from each other, travelling to those villages became very difficult. Apart from the hills, the weather was another problem in shooting the movie and we thought it would take a long time to finish the shoot. However, with the support of the whole team, we finished faster than we expected. 

Can you talk about the music of the movie?

Giving music for a movie based on the story of malaria eradication was very challenging for Gaurav Anand, the music director of the movie. It took us around 6 months to develop the music for the movie. Tushar Jena has also done an excellent job in composing the score for the movie, for which we worked with an experienced team from Chennai and Mumbai.

How do you feel about the reception of the movie?

We didn’t expect the movie to blow up to such proportions. We thought that we would just release the movie in the state for now, but it became bigger and bigger, and we had to release the movie across India on audience demand, which is like a dream for the whole team.

 A lot of people have been demanding to release the movie in Hindi. Any plans on doing so?

Yes, we are dubbing the movie in Hindi, and we have roped in voice-over artist Sanket Mhatre to dub for Babushaan and Chandan Roy of Panchayat fame to dub for Dipanwit. The work is going on in full swing and the release date will be revealed soon.

With DAMaN being a success and Anupam Kher appreciating Pratikshya in IFFI and announcing that he will produce the movie in Hindi, do you think this is the dawn of a new era for Odia cinema? 

I think Odia cinema has taken a leap of change. After the pandemic, people have shifted to watching movies on OTT and now content has become the focus. The OTT platforms have made movies easily accessible. So, now we should make movies that have a global appeal. We should change the mindset that we need to make movies only for Odisha or any specific region. Earlier, people used to love romantic movies or thrillers, but the success of DAMaN proved that the usual tropes won’t work and the audience just want good content, irrespective of the genre. I think the success of this movie will act as a ray of hope for other Odia movie makers.

What are your plans after DAMaN? Do you have any future projects in mind?

As of now, we all will take a long break once the dubbing is done and then we will think about future projects.