(From top) Priyanshu Chatterjee, Lalita Chatterjee and local girl Healy shoot in Manali; (above and below left) Priyanshu and Priyanka Bose in the snow; (left) Goutam Ghose trains the camera. Pictures by Sujit Sarkar

A line from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and The Sea has inspired Goutam Ghose to script his new film Shunyo Awnka (The Zero Act), starring Konkona Sensharma, Priyanshu Chatterjee and Priyanka Bose (of Italo Spinelli’s Gangor fame). Ghose, currently camping in Manali for the shoot, tells t2 about his “patriotic” venture.

How did you get the idea for Shunyo Awnka?

I was actually preparing for an Indo-Italian co-production to be made in English and Hindi called Lala, about a 12-year-old Italian boy. I was in Rome for that and on my way back to Calcutta I was reading Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea when the last line of the novel — ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated’ — triggered the thought for a story. I thought I could shape it into a film. This happened just three months ago and the script was quite hurried.

How is that line linked to your story?

That line is the basic spirit of the film. The backdrop is India today. India is not homogeneous and, in my opinion, is a multi-layered country. When you move around India, you find the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries running parallel. That is incredible India for me and through the characters I want to see my India which is very diverse and how the term ‘unity in diversity’ that Gandhi had coined is still a dream. The story has wit, humour, tension and the spirit that nobody can ever be defeated. It is a story of true patriotism and it’s not just about chanting a few patriotic songs.

What can you tell us about the characters and the cast?

One of the characters is a corporate man who has climbed and reached great heights in a multinational company, to be played by Priyanshu. He is married to a girl who was once an airhostess but is now grounded as his wife. Priyanka Bose will play the wife. Konkona will play a journalist who has studied journalism at TISS Mumbai and has been reporting for an entertainment tabloid. But she is tired of it now and opts for indigenous reporting. She goes to tribal areas and starts writing on issues related to those belts. Soumitra Chatterjee plays a retired scientist from the Bhabha research centre; he comes from an aristocratic Muslim family. His wife is Lalita Chatterjee. The story straddles both urban and rural lives. The characters are urban with rural connections and there’s a sense of quest in all of them.

Your reason for choosing this cast?

Priyanshu and Konkona both look and fit their roles. Kakon (Konkona) is very excited. I’ve shot with her before as the director of photography for (Aparna Sen’s) Mr and Mrs Iyer, but I’ve never directed her. Priyanshu... I’ve worked with in Moner Manush. Soumitrada, I love him... and for Lalita, it will be a real comeback. I’ve seen Priyanka’s work in Gangor and I think she’s quite talented. She’s also a tango dancer.

Why do you call it Shunyo Awnka?

I’m breaking the film up into a countdown from 10 to zero as the story moves forward. The denudation of the entire story happens in the zero act. The ‘zero’ act is the surprise of the film. So the English title is The Zero Act.

What about your technical team?

Since Moner Manush was so successful and Goutam Kundu of Rose Valley Films who produced it was very keen on another film, Shunyo Awnka too will be produced by them. My art director Samir Chanda passed away last year. I will miss him very much. His assistant Somnath Pakhre will look after the art direction. My wife Nilanjana is doing the costumes and (daughter) Anandi will assist me as well as look after the aesthetics in general.

I will handle the camera myself as well as the music, but there will be two additional songs by Anupam Roy. I’m very happy that my son Ishaan, who studied music in the US, has developed an interest in the camera. He is making a documentary on Bohurupees and will be assisting me in cinematography for this film. Let’s see if he goes my way!

What takes your story to Manali?

We chose Manali for the first leg of our shoot because Manali would have snow now. Snow is an important element in the story and has been used as a metaphor throughout the film. After Manali, we return to Calcutta for the next leg and we’ll also be shooting in Purulia.