Odishatv Bureau
Panaji: The makers of Bhojpuri film `He..` which dwells on the life of a 13-year-old ragpicker from Bihar, says that it does not have any similarity to the Oscar winning movie `Slumdog Millionaire`. Director Mangesh Joshi said the draft of his film was ready in 2008 while Slumdog was released in 2009.

The Danny Boyle film had won 8 Oscars at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony including best adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, original score, original song, direction and motion picture.

"The film has nothing to do with Slumdog Millionaire. Here there is no physical drama alike in the Slumdog," said the Pune-born filmmaker, who has experimented with Bhojpuri film for the first time. The movie which is a part of IFFI, is about Hari, a slum-dweller from Bihar, who reaches Mumbai and gets a chance to act in a short film in the metropolis.

The story narrates how Hari, who is called as a `Hero` is sucked into the dark side of the city. "The word Hero gives him a window about his own emotional world," Joshi said. Madan Deodhar, a first year student from Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, has played the lead role. The film script was the part of National Films Development Corporation (NFDC) Film Bazaar at IFFI.

Joshi said he had to make the film in a regional language. "I had an option between Marathi and Bhojpuri. But I preferred Bhojpuri because the protagonist in the film is scripted as a Bihari runaway guy," he said. The film, screened in the Feature film category of Indian Panorama section at IFFI, has been receiving houseful response for its shows.

Joshi said few of the foreign delegates, including French filmmakers, had walked upto him and congratulated him. Deodar, who has played a lead role in the movie, said that before shooting of the film, he was unaware about the dark realities of the slums in the city.

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