Chaitanya Tamhane: Alfonso Cuaron treated me like a colleague

Sandra Bullock in Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity that earned him an Oscar for Best Director in 2014

Chaitanya Tamhane never expected to get chosen for Alfonso Cuarón's mentorship programme. It seems the Gravity filmmaker had told the team behind the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, that he wanted to guide a female filmmaker from a third world country. The initiative launched in 2002 is known to pass on the artistic heritage to the next generation, from around the world, across fields. One cannot sign up for it without an invite. In fact, even to apply, you need an invite.

A still from Tamhane's debut film Court that won him the National Award in 2015

Tamhane, having bagged the National Award in 2015 for his debut film Court, had visited Los Angeles towards the end of 2015 to initiate the Oscar campaign for the film. Soon after his return, he received an invitation to apply. "A nominating panel of eminent film personalities shortlists candidates. The process can stretch up to six months. Around 18 applications were whittled down to four. These candidates went to London for a one-on-one interview with Cuaron. After several rounds of interviews and weeks of waiting in suspense, I learnt I had got lucky."

Filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón mentors Chaitanya Tamhane on the set of Cuarón's film Roma in Mexico. Pic/Chien-Chi Chang/Magnum Photos

The interview stretched into a leisurely lunch in London. "We hit it off almost instantly. I did not eat a thing since we were so busy chatting," Tamhane remembers. The conversation veered around films, and Cuarón spoke at length of Court and admitted to Tamhane that he was envious of him, as he had managed to pull off in his debut, what had taken him four films to do. "I think it was the big guy being big-hearted. However, given what we had heard about him wanting to mentor a female director, I was not sure of my chances. It was over a month before I got to know that I had made the cut. After seeing Court, he felt that the next film he's working on, Roma, is similar to that in its intent and ethos, and therefore, I would benefit most from the programme," Tamhane says.

He was lucky that Cuarón was already shooting his next; so he set off to Mexico to watch him work on the sets for a month. "For a filmmaker like me, who has worked with a local crew in places like Dahisar and Kalyan, the limitations stare at you in the face. So, you can only imagine how it was to observe filmmaking at that scale. Given the levels of confidentiality they maintain, when else would I get the chance? Probably, never because I don't intend to work in that kind of setup." And it was not just Cuarón. "His collaborators too come with a wealth of experience. The VFX person had worked in Benjamin Button, the colourist in The Revenant and Birdman. It was a chance for me to pick all their brains. I was like a kid in a candy store." The experience has sensitised Tamhane to aspects he did not focus on earlier, he says. "Image construction, for instance - Cuarón composes frames like a painter."

Tamhane describes Cuarón as a "chilled out guy" on set. "He's not the kind of mentor who gives you gyaan. He always treated me like a fellow filmmaker, a colleague. When I expressed my awe over his grasp on VFX, he told me that it had only been a year since he had learnt to send an email. I couldn't believe it. But, it's true!" The National Award winner feels he has just started. "I always tell myself that I've lucked out in my first film. Seeing people like Cuarón, you realise how much more there remains to accomplish." The learning's not over yet, even though the programme ended earlier this month. Next month, Tamhane will fly to London to see his mentor work on sound for the film. "Our relation will continue beyond the stipulated period."

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