It wowed audiences at 27 international festivals, bagged 12 prestigious awards including the National Film Award for best child artiste.
Yet, I Am Kalam struggled to find its way to Indian theatres for over a year now for want of distributors. Finally the movie, picked up by Reliance Entertainment in May, is scheduled to release next month.
Says producer Shantanu Mishra, "We approached many production houses, but everyone knows that any film without a Shah Rukh or a Salman, or for that matter any big star, is not really entertained."
The film stands up against child labour and propagates the right to education. Despite its important social theme, it struggled to compete with Kiran Rao's Dhobi Ghat (in terms of publicity which was in competition with I Am Kalam at the London Film Festival.)
Says director Nila Madhav Panda, "There are many films which, despite their honest stories, are unwanted. We made I Am
Kalam under a tight budget, and we could not afford to invest 20 times the amount for publicity," informing they relied on word-
of-mouth publicity as a result.
Fortunately, their efforts have not gone unrewarded. The protagonist in the film, 13-year-old Harsh Mayar, recently visited the Buckingham Palace for a screening with Prince Charles. The film is also gathering praise in Bollywood. Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Arjun Rampal have expressed their support for the film.
Adds producer Mishra, "We are trying to take the film to as many people as possible. Our aim is to sensitise the audience on an issue the children in our country have been grappling with for years."
This too!
Apart from I Am Kalam, yet another National Award winner, Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu, faced problems with distribution. It was only when South superstar Mammootty came on board as one of the distributors, the film was ready to hit theatres.
