Ironically, the most successful Gujarati movie in recent times is based on the struggles of a diamond polisher after the global economic slowdown hit the state’s gem industry. Eight weeks after its release, Have Maare Heera Nathi Ghasva (I don’t want to polish diamonds anymore) is still witnessing unprecedented collections at the box office. That is not all, this will perhaps be the first Gujarati film to have an overseas release when it will be screened in Chicago next month.

Producer Atul Patel has his reasons for selecting such an unconventional topic. “I own a theatre in Varacha, the biggest hub of diamond polishers in Surat. So I am emotionally connected with diamond industry and its people. When I saw the slowdown, I realised this is the subject for a Gujarati movie,” he explains.

And his calculations have not failed. Even the IPL failed to make a dent in the collections, with revenues crossing Rs 25 lakh in Central and South Gujarat alone. The movie is scheduled to release in Saurashtra on June 26.

“The movie wouldn’t have been such a hit had it been released any later,” says Patel, explaining why he made sure the entire production was completed in three months, that too on a shoestring budget of just Rs 25 lakh.

But Patel knew he had a winner from the very start. And the fact that director Arun as well as writer Harshad Gahdvi had seen the industry from close quarters only helped. “People have come to see what they have experienced and seen around them in the past few months,” adds Patel, who made sure the latest developments in the industry were incorporated in the script from time to time.

... contd.