The shooting for a short children’s film based on real events inspired by nine years old Mhonbeni Ezung who was awarded National Bravery in December 2015 for rescuing her drowning grandmother from a river at Chudi village in Wokha district of Nagaland.
The short film is directed and produced by Bollywood fame director Akashaditya Lama and assisted by Rebecca Chankija Naga.
Set in the luscious green hills of the Southern Angami villages including Viswema, Kisama and Jakhama, the shooting for the film was completed in approximately 10 days.
Announcing this during a press conference at Emerald Inn, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur, Saturday, the film crew led by Akashaditya Lama informed that the post production of the film will be completed within six months and the film is set to release tentatively in the early part of 2017 and the title of the film will be ‘Nani Teri Morni’.
Lama was all praises for the cast, mostly from Nagaland, with the role of the brave girl Mhonbeni Ezung played by five year old Zinen Nillo Kath, a student of Stepping Stones Montessori and daughter of Joel Nillo Kath.
The cast also includes Naga Bollywood actor Zhokhoyi besides others.
“Nagaland is blessed with beautiful forests and landscapes which should be seen by others and the best way to showcase such beauty is through films and movies which in another way is a tool for promoting tourism,” Lama said.
Adding that Nagas were talented in acting and that they have the potential to join mainstream showbiz which is a promising career, Lama noted.
Underscoring the need to preserve identity and culture which was quickly vanishing, Lama was of the view every community should uphold their basic and core values which were passed down from their forefathers mostly through the form of verbal communication.
Credited with more than 3000 episodes of television shows like Kumkum, Kkusum, Kabhi Aina Judai besides assistant directing, scripting, and writing famous Bollywood movies like Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, Lahore and most recently Mohenjodare etc. Lama said Nani Teri Morni was shot with the state-of-the-art cameras which are used in the international standard film shooting.
He disclosed that the film which is shot in Hindi and Nagamese dialect will have subtitles of different languages like English, Japanese, Korean etc.
Lama recalled how he got motivated to work in the Northeast and during that time he came across the inspiring story of Mhonbeni which propelled him to initiate a research on the girl.
He sent his cousins to locate the girl and after necessary paperworks were completed, he personally came to survey the locations where he can shoot and during that time he even visited Dzükou valley.
He narrated that although he really wanted to shoot the film at Dzükou he could not get the clearance to land choppers in the valley which forced him to scrape the idea and change the location to the neighbouring villages.
Wrapping up the shooting in 10 days with five cameras which otherwise would have taken more than 20 days, Lama said the post production would now take minimum five to six month as it would determine the output and its possibility to be screened at international film festivals.
Answering to a query, Lama said he wants to come back to Nagaland in the future for more projects.
Proprietor of Find Studio Production House Mumbai, Rebecca Chanakija, who did the casting for Nani Teri Morni, said the state government needed to play more active role in facilitating visitors so as to attract more of such projects to the state.
The film is expected to be a dominant children’s movie which would even attract international buyers.