An auto ride, like never before

A scrawny man smiling and confessing to the camera of having committed nine murders makes for an intriguing trailer. And it seems to have worked well for Mumbai boy Rohit Mittal’s mockumentary Autohead that is the sole selection at the 40th Hong Kong International Film Festival. Shot in the suburbs of Mumbai within a span of just two weeks by a 12-member crew, the mockumentary revolves around a film crew following an auto-rickshaw driver through the city and then events take a turn for the worse. The concept came naturally to him, Rohit says. “I grew up in the suburbs of Mumbai and have travelled in auto-rickshaws all my life. So doing something of this sort came naturally to me. Besides, I’m a big fan of Taxi Driver and Man Bites Dog,” he says.

Being an independent filmmaker, gathering funds for the film was difficult. “I got some money from my friends and family and finally found a producer in Amit Verma who heard the story and came on board. I’ll be flying to Hong Kong with him on March 23,” Rohit says.

From the slums of Kurar Village to the congested interiors of Mira Road, Rohit and his crew made an effort to capture the underbelly of the city, a task that had its own challenges. Rohit says, “Shooting in the slums was tricky. Locals there think films are made elsewhere, so then why would someone enter their neighbourhood to make a film It was difficult to explain to them that that there are films made without Shah Rukh and Salman Khan.” And the crew also needed to be discreet and quiet. “We ensured we didn’t attract too much attention from the slum dwellers. People were surprised to see the actor directly talk to the camera and were wondering what kind of film was being shot,” he adds.

The ambient noise in the slum areas was a different beast to tame altogether. Location sound mixer Ravidev Singh says, “Guerrilla filmmaking is all about shooting in real locations. We had to be very particular about what we wanted, because it was difficult to keep out the ambience noise. We were not using boom microphones, only lapels. The main challenge was maintaining the distance. We wouldn’t go too close to the camera. Sometimes we would be hiding behind the trees to get the voice without any interference.”

Before the film could hit the floors, Rohit spent a month scripting it and then began to search for his protagonist Narayan Srivastav, the auto-rickshaw driver whose journey the film follows. His search ended when he met Deepak Sampat, a theatre artiste who got the role in a single audition. To understand his character better, Deepak made the slums of Kandivali his temporary home. He spent over a week there, interacting with auto-rickshaw drivers to get into the mould of one. The actor says, “I was not aware of the mockumentary format initially. Rohit explained it to me and I found it very intriguing. I stayed with auto-rickshaw drivers in Kandivali, I studied how they ate, lived and also learnt to ride an auto-rickshaw. Initially, they were apprehensive and reluctant to open up but, eventually they understood that we had only good intentions and then became more comfortable.”

Autohead was screened at the NFDC Film Bazaar last year and garnered a lot of praise there. When Rohit had set out to make the film, festivals were not even remotely on his mind. But the good response at the NFDC encouraged him to be more ambitious. “I wanted to make a film that is more of a character study of a destructive mind in a repressive society. Also I wanted to question the intent of the so-called social issue based filmmakers and question filmmaking in general. The mockumentary format is intriguing. They imitate reality in a way and questions the whole format of filmmaking,” says the 28-year-old. A few dignitaries who were present at the NFDC screening really liked the film, Rohit says. And that eventually paved the way to the HKIFF. The film has also been nominated for the International Federation of Films Critics award at the festival. However, he’s keeping his expectations low. “I’m super excited as the film premieres there. To be nominated is a big deal but I’m not expecting an award — that’d be too much for a first time nomination,” he says with a smile.