Actor-director Anand Tiwari, who has debuted as a feature film director for the Netflix original “Love Per Square Foot”, says he always wanted to explore every aspect of filmmaking.
He starting his career with theatre, and later acted in films like “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Fair Game”, “The President Is Coming” and “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!”.
Asked what made him direct a film, Anand told IANS: “Well, I always wanted to direct a film, a feature film. Basically, I am one of those film enthusiasts who want to involve himself in every aspect of filmmaking. So I am equally excited to direct a film, as I am when acting.
“I am equally excited to edit and do post-production of the film as I am when I am watching it from the projecting room. Therefore, as a director, I was very much a part of the whole journey of the film.”
Anand said he learnt a series of things through the process of making the film.
“The script was the core ingredient of the film and performance of these actors added up to it. In the next film, I know what the things I will do are, and what are the areas I will improve,” he said.
“Love Per Square Foot” released on Valentine’s Day. It revolves around a young couple who get into a marriage of convenience to get a house in a city like Mumbai where every dweller struggles to have their own house.
Therefore, the city played an important role in the film and Anand tried to shoot most of it in real locations. It was not quite an easy task.
“It was little difficult to shoot at the real locations and we started working on it three months even before the actual shoot.
There are many locations in the city where no film shoot had taken place. Therefore, we faced little difficulties. However, the good thing is, we managed to shoot the film the way we wanted it to.”
The film features actors like Vicky Kaushal, Angira Dhar, Ratna Pathak Shah, Supriya Pathak, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Raghubir Yadav and Arunoday Singh.
Asked how their performance uplifted the story, Anand said: “One thing Ronnie sir (producer Ronnie Screwvala) and I were sure of from the beginning was to cast some of the best actors in the business. So when we cast Vicky and Angira, we did not go by how many fan followers they have on social media.
“Good performance was the only criteria because we all knew that with a good script and good performance, a story can go to the next level. As makers, that is what we want to do.”
The film is produced by RSVP Productions.