Madhav as Phalke (centre) in Harishchandrachi Factory

Beneath the eccentric and workaholic Dadasaheb Phalke of Harishchandrachi Factory, which is India’s only official entry at the Oscars this year, hides a shy and pleasant Marathi actor. In Calcutta to show Harishchandrachi Factory to the festival audience, Nandu Madhav was also filling in for director Paresh Mokashi who picked him to play the father of Indian cinema.

“I couldn’t sleep the entire night after Paresh offered me the role! It’s a dream role for any actor. All these days, I had known Dadasaheb Phalke as the man after whom a film city and an award are named. So I read up two biographies on Phalke,” says Madhav, who made his film debut with Amol Palekar’s Daayra.

“Unlike most biopics, Harishchandrachi Factory is not emotional and pensive. The director wanted to give it a cheerful treatment because that is what the events surrounding the making of Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra involved. Just think, the entire unit got arrested on the first day of shooting because they had gadgets no one knew about!” adds the Marathi actor.

To slip into a character that he thinks is “sincere, progressive, short-tempered but spunky”, Madhav procured footage and clips of Phalke from the National Film Archives in Pune. “I got footage that was filmed by Phalke’s wife Saraswatibai, as well as shots of Phalke directing the first Indian film, Raja Harishchandra. It gave me an idea about his personality,” Madhav explains.

Mastering the Marathi dialect of an era long gone was another challenge. “We don’t use words or sentence constructions like they did in early 20th century. So I read up the works of Lokmanya Tilak and recited in Sanskrit every morning for a clear diction.”

Life has slowly begun to change for the low-profile Madhav after the Oscar buzz surrounding his film. “I haven’t acted in any film after Harishchandrachi. I got a couple of offers for Hindi films after Harishchandrachi was selected as India’s Oscar entry, but all this is in the planning stage. The film has been doing the film festival rounds but UTV will release it in the theatres soon. There are plans to dub it in Hindi and some regional languages,” smiles the reel Phalke.