Last year saw some really interesting films across India being made by debutant directors and M.Manikandan‘s Kaakka Muttai in Tamil certainly is one of the important films in that list. Winner of 2 National Awards and popular in the festival circuit as well, the film produced by Dhanush and Vetrimaaran also went on to do well commercially as well. Kaakka Muttai is a good example of the fact that award winning, critically acclaimed films can be entertaining as well. Samit Kakkad, producer of Marathi films like Huppa Huiyya (2010) and Aayna Ka Bayna (2012), turned director as well with Aayna Ka Bayna. He is now making Half Ticket, the official Marathi remake of Kaakka Muttai. The film is being produced by popular Marathi production house, Video Palace.
Samit says that he had watched Kaakka Muttai and fell in love with the film, making note of the fact that it is a tale that could be relevant to Mumbai as well. In fact producer Nanu Jaisinghani had also seen Kaakka Muttai and being impressed with the film, went on to suggest to Samit that this deserved to be remade in Marathi. Things fell in place as the official remake rights for Marathi were bought and Samit is happy to credit the people who have worked on the original. The first look poster of the film clearly mentions that the story is by M.Manikandan, while screenplay is by Dnyanesh. G.V.Prakash Kumar who had scored the music for Kakka Muttai has also composed for Half Ticket as well. Sanjay Memane is the DOP of the film, while Faisal-Imran are the editors.
When asked about how different would Half Ticket be when compared with Kakka Muttai, here’s what Samit had to say “well the basic plotline remains the same, though we have made a few small changes but making sure that the soul of the original remains intact. I personally feel that Mumbai has more character as a city and hence a lot that can be explored, which we have tried to in the film. The entire film has been shot on real locations, including the slum where the 2 kids live. And thanks to some good preparation, including recce we managed to shoot the film in nearly half the time that was taken for the original. In terms of challenges with regard to the shoot Samit feels that auditioning more than 400 kids to get the right kind of 2 protagonists was quite a demanding task. Also the shoot by itself in and around the city was not something easy to handle.
On how he managed to handle the kids and whether the experience of working with teenage boys in Aayna Ka Bayna helped, here’s what Samit mentioned “well yes the experience of Aayna Ka Bayna did help a bit, but then those boys were a lot more grown up. I took the help of some (child) psychologists who helped me in understanding the psyche of children better. That certainly helped me a lot”. Giving further details Samit also tells us that he is lucky to have got a good producer to back him, Video Palace being a popular and respected banner in the industry. Also Half Ticket is being distributed by Fox Star Studios, marking their entry into Marathi Cinema. As of now the trailer launch is being planned for May and the film is looking at a release in July.
Here is the first look poster of the film.
mad about moviez.in 