Zoom into conflict

The director found Oonga in 11-year-old Singh barely two weeks before the shoot. “We were running out of options after having auditioned hundreds of children from Mumbai,Kerala,Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. An assistant on our team pushed us to take a look at this little powerhouse whose mother used to work for him as a house help,” recounts Makhija.

Singh’s agility is what impressed the team most — something that was important for film as the character had to climb trees and catch fish with his bare hands. The boy successfully delivered this fearlessness in Oonga.

Made over an 18-day shoot schedule,Oonga also stars Nandita Das as a benevolent teacher of the adivasi children in the village and Seema Biswas as a Naxal leader. Das’ Oriya roots helped her pick up the nuances faster. Singh,who speaks only Hindi,meanwhile would ask the Oriya expert on the sets to read his dialogues out to him slowly so he could write them down in Hindi on a piece of paper. “He would then fold the paper and put it in his pocket before walking into the frame — it was comforting for him to think that he has the dialogues with him at all times,” says Makhija.

Although the underlining message in Oonga is a stark one,the tale is told through music,mythology and action — the very things Indian audiences have lapped up eagerly for a century now,points out the 35-year-old director.

meenakshi.iyer@expressindia.com