In 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the Indian film industry economically and emotionally and stalled the frenetic pace with which it usually works. The lockdown also brought with it a renewed appreciation for the familiar and the local among the industry professionals.
Veteran producer Anand Pandit recalls how the year brought his attention to the richly detailed and nuanced beauty of Indian stories and locations. He says, “The trend to shoot abroad even if it is not contextually needed in a film, has been overdone. When I shot Chehre in Slovakia, the script demanded a certain kind of an atmosphere but there is so much in India that hasn’t yet been explored by us, be it in the North-East, Kerala or the far-flung regions of Himachal Pradesh. Hence, I look forward to doing justice to our own locations and milieus through cinema.”
