Did You Know Pan Nalin sold his home to make 'Chhello Show'?

'Chhello Show ', India's official entry for the Oscars 2023, was released in Indian cinema on October 14. Pan Nalin's directorial debut is the first Gujarati feature to be selected for the Tribeca Film Festival showcase, and it was also screened at Spain's Valladolid International Film Festival, where it won the top prize, the Golden Spike for Best Film. Pan Nalin revealed in an exclusive interview with a media source that he sold his home to make the film.
Pan Nalin began working on the film in 2018 and it was ready in around three years. When the media source asked what took it so long, Nalin said, It took them a long time to get funding for the film because a lot of people told him that he should make it in Hindi and include a star in the film so that the film would reach out to a wider audience.
Further, he also revealed to the media source how the film attracted international distributors, The director said he, with the film's producer Dheer Momaya, went to the Cannes Film Festival to raise money for Chhello Show in 2019. They had meetings with a lot of studios. The Orange Studio, which is known for selling films worldwide, had never done any Indian movies but they loved the script. They said, 'Look, we would be happy to sell the movie worldwide because it has a universal theme and we love the script'. That gave us encouragement to take further risks and go and shoot it.
Pan Nalin and his team were lucky to have shot almost the entire film before the pandemic struck in March 2020. 'Chhello Show' premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2021 for the first time. Sharing the response, Nalin said to a media source, They loved the film and they offered us an opening spot, spotlight, red carpet, and all that and from there, the journey kind of started.
When they went to New York in June-July for the screening, they did not have the final mix of the film ready, but the director thought that it was a great decision. They went there and from there on he thought we were able to attract a lot of international distributors.
'Chhello Show' is a coming-of-age drama, which revolves around a 9-year-old boy who resides in a remote village in India and his love affair with cinema. The film shows how the little boy spends a summer watching films from the projection booth.