Exclusive! 'The Disciple' director Chaitanya Tamhane: My vision was always to make a film on a global level

Chaitanya Tamhane's 'The Disciple' bagged the Best Screenplay award at Venice International Film Festival on September 12. Ironically, 'The Disciple' is an only Indian film to get selected in the competition category at Venice.
While speaking exclusively with Etimes, Filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane said "It was a big honour for us to present the Marathi film 'The Disciple' in the main competition at Venice.My last film 'Court' had also premiered there in the Orrizonti section which was like the next level. It's been such a strange for everybody around the world and we were also worried about the film"
"So, when we got to know that 'The Disciple' is going for Venice and it was a dream come true moment for us. As a filmmaker, you will always aspire that one day, one of my films will be the main competition at one of the oldest film festival in the world. Yes, We are very grateful and blessed for this happening with us in 2020" Chaitanya added.
Talking about the film 'The Disciple' content, Chaitanya said "The standard in the mind was always International. We didn't make this film for the International market or International audience but the vision was always to make a film on a global level. To make a good film and you make it with your conviction and your belief and then you hope that it will do well in the world. Yes, we were not expecting this that 'The Disciple' will get such a massive platform. So it was a very pleasant surprise for us"
He further elaborated " the film shows the journey of a vocalist, who is trying to learn Indian classical music in the city of Mumbai. He was initiated into this music by his father and also has a guru from whom his learning music. And also we tryinng to survive in the city and also trying to be connected with the tradition. So, it is a journey of an artist and his struggle"
While speaking about the film's script, Chaitanya said "For me, it is always a setting that very fascinating. I mean that story comes later to me. For me, the world that I don't know anything about like the profession and setting excites me. So for 'Court', it was the lower court that excited me. Similarly for 'The Disciple', it was about the life of a musician. So, we did a lot of research on music and interviewed musician and also watched several documentaries. The script emerged after the research of over 2 years"