‘I watch Gangs of Wasseypur every year’: Filmmaker Anmol Sidhu

InfluencesHe also credits Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu’s 2007 film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days as a major influence for the style of Jaggi. Moreover, it was the presenter of the film, Anurag Kashyap, who indirectly inspired him to make it. “First of all, I watch Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) at least once every year. I just love Anurag sir’s films,” he says.Initially, Jaggi was planned to be a short film of over 40 minutes. However, during the Covid lockdown, the financier backed out, causing a major hurdle. This gave Anmol more time to understand the nuances of writing a screenplay as he developed the story further. He still did not have proper equipment and camera to shoot the film. “During that time, I came across some videos of Anurag sir where he talked about how films can be shot even on phones,” says Anmol, who has also edited the film. “I kept watching many of his videos on indie filmmaking which pushed me to make this film.”Along with his team of actors, Anmol got a camera but did not know how to use it. “We took help from a wedding photographer who shot some scenes in the film. Eventually, we learnt the basics of the camera from him and started to operate it ourselves,” he reflects. Ramnish Chaudhary, who plays the titular role of Jaggi, also checked the continuity while shooting and was involved in recording the foley sounds along with co-actor Harmandeep Singh. “We discovered in the middle of shooting that we were putting the pin of our microphone in the wrong plug all along,” Anmol says with a smile. “It was all trial and error, and we were all learning along the way.”



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