A story of confusion

Konkani film, Questao De Confusao is currently being screened at several places in Goa. NT BUZZ catches up with the producer Suchita Narvekar and lead actor Rajdeep Naik to know more about their experience of working on the film

VENITA GOMES | NT BUZZ

Over the past few years, several Konkani films have been made dealing with themes like property issues, corruption, love stories, forced labour etc. The latest offering by director Swapnil Shetkar, Konkani film ‘Questao De Confusao’ has a different story of communal harmony to tell. “The story is centred around two neighbours – a Hindu and a Christian, who live opposite each other. Owing to some confusion, a lot of misunderstanding takes place. It is a family film and has something for every age group. It has all the emotions of sadness, happiness, and laughter. It is a film that will leave you with a question to think about,” says Suchita Narvekar.

The title ‘Questao De Confusao’ was intentionally kept in Portuguese language so that it could gain more attention, says Suchita, adding that earlier, people would commonly use the phrase to describe a confusing situation.

Completed in a span of one and a half year, the making of the film had its share of problems and technical errors.

Recalling one such incident, Suchita narrates how DOP Winston Jose suffered a serious accident injuring his spinal cord, during a shoot. Despite this, he was determined to complete the shoot first and then go for a check up. “This showed us how dedicated our team was towards the film,” says Suchita.

Finance too was a major issue. “It was difficult for us to collect funds. We tried different techniques. For instance, we asked people to give us money before the film and depending on that we could either screen the film in their village or give them the tickets for free,” says actor Rajdeep Naik. “Initially, we did not think much about the cost but as the shoots started the expenses started increasing.”

Shot entirely in Calvim, the film has two children Ethan D’Souza and Chetanya Naik in the lead. In fact to finalise the child actors, the team held several auditions before they shortlisted the two from 150 aspirants.

The cast also includes Rajdeep Naik, Anil Pednekar, Antonette D’Souza, Gauri Kamat, Anil Raikar, Reshama Naik, Spirit Fernandes, Bunty and Sharad Sakhardande and others. The film has been presented by Chetana Productions.

Four promotional songs of the film were also released prior to the film which consists of a Konkani kantar, dindi, rap and a parody of famous Marathi tracks.

And the team has gone all out to promote the film as much as possible, an aspect, they feel, Goan filmmakers don’t give enough importance to. “People aren’t going to watch if they do not get to know about it,” they reason, and thus they have done their best to market their film. “We have tried promoting the film in almost all the places from Canacona to Pernem,” says Suchita, adding that the film has got a good response so far.  “People who have watched the film have stated after Marathi film ‘Sairat’, this is another good film to watch. All the shows have been houseful so far. I hope more people, especially families go and watch and learn something new from it.”