Reel romance offers kids retake on life

KOLKATA: This love story blossomed in an orphanage. Between takes and retakes, an entire film crew fell in love with the guest actors whose lives run parallel with the script - the inmates of two rehabilitation homes.
From big names like Churni Ganguly and Sabyasachi Chakrabarty to director Koushik Ganguly and the rest of the crew of Waarish-everyone is saving each paisa from the production, and running errands to corporate houses trying to provide some hope to these children.
The crew has already promised to finance some major expenses of the children from the profit earned by the film.
"We used to offer them our meals during shooting and were amazed to find that even having an egg makes them so excited and happy. It was an overwhelming feeling," said Sabyasachi Chakrabarty.
Co-actor Churni Ganguly added: "We feel so helpless about these children. I am so involved with them now."
Waarish, which deals with abandoned and destitute children, is said to be the first to use orphans to tell their own story. Thirty-five inmates of the city-based Disha and Usthi Foundation have acted in the film.
"We don''t want to make any false promises but all of us are committed to helping the kids," said Koushik Ganguly, who refused to make do with junior artists or shoot in a studio.
"We wanted to capture the spirit of a children''s home, which is impossible in a mock-up set," he said.
The movie will hit the screens in April but the producer, Siddhartha Bhattacharya, is more busy trying for lifelong sponsorships for the children.
"A major portion of the profit will be for these children, that is a promise. We never imagined that we would get so involved with the children," he said.
Rinku, Tapan, Mitali and the rest of their friends have picked up words like ''boom'', ''action'', ''betacam,'' ''trolley'', ''pan, ''close-ups'', and cannot have enough of playing "shooting-shooting".
"The children are still in a dream, we are thankful to the unit for loving our children so much. Their world has changed in many ways," said Vijaya Saha of Disha & Usthi Foundation.