New Delhi: Manoj Bajpayee calls his upcoming film Jugnuma a ‘rare kind of film’ that does not happen too often. The film, directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Raam Reddy, has already made its mark on the international stage. It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and went on to win Best Film at the Leeds International Film Festival. It also received a Special Jury Prize at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
“The state of mind of the character matched with the state of mind I was in when I got the script. I have not seen this kind of narrative in any films before. It is also the world of magic realism that he set up,” Bajpayee told ThePrint.
Set in the late 1980s, Jugnuma follows Dev (Manoj Bajpayee), who discovers mysteriously burnt trees in his fruit orchards in the Himalayas. As he struggles to stop the fires, more outbreaks occur, leading him to face not only the mystery but also hidden truths about himself and his family.
“It’s the story of man versus nature — of how man is both pampered and confronted by nature. Raam got the idea from witnessing a fire in the mountains when he was staying in a resort, and how people were responding to it,” said Bajpayee.
Jugnuma also stars Deepak Dobriyal, Priyanka Bose, Tillotama Shome, Hiral Sidhu, and Awan Pookot in key roles. The film is presented by Guneet Monga Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap.
‘Magic realism’
The trailer shows Bajpayee with a stubble, interacting with his family and the villagers who live near his orchard. The movie was shot on 16 mm film, which adds to the visuals of the trailer.
“Names like mine, Anurag’s (Kashyap) or even Guneet’s (Monga) can create interest for a certain section of people, before the film’s release. But at the end it all comes down to the film, and the credit would be the filmmaker’s,” said Bajpayee.
A special screening was hosted by Kapoor and Kashyap in Mumbai on Sunday for 15 filmmakers, including Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Sudhir Mishra, Vikramaditya Motwane, Abhishek Chaubey, Vasan Bala, Nandita Das, and Rima Das.
“I loved Jugnuma for its courage, its poetry and its stunning magic realism. The performances stayed with me long after, which is the true beauty of cinema. It’s heartening to see such films breaking boundaries and finding support to reach wider audiences,” said Rima Das after the screening.
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‘A world in Jugnuma’
Bajpayee, who recently played a cop in the Netflix series Inspector Zende, is clear about the kind of work he wants to do, which has also helped a range of filmmakers to work with him.
“When filmmakers got convinced about how my idea of myself is very different from other actors, they started gradually approaching me with different stuff. I think it gave courage to new directors to offer me something new or experimental,” said Bajpayee.
The actor is clear that his filmography should reflect variety.
“I am more interested in evolving as an actor and human being rather than performing the same thing again and again. That gets so boring,” said the actor.
Reddy, who has been a fan of Bajpayee, especially after watching him in Gangs of Wasseypur, was convinced that no one else could play Dev. The writer-filmmaker spent months in Uttarakhand in 2017, before writing the script for the film.
Reddy’s award-winning film Thithi (2016) was made with non-professional actors from a village in Karnataka. After that, he also made 12 short films across various languages before his second feature Jugnuma, which is in Hindi.
“Raam Reddy has done something which none of us thought was possible on a script or screen. He has a special quality of creating a world in Jugnuma that none of us would think in our wildest dreams,” said Bajpayee.
The movie releases on 12 September.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)