Paresh Mokashi

Paresh Mokashi (born 6 February 1969) is an Indian filmmaker, producer, actor and Theatre director-producer; working predominantly in Marathi cinema and Marathi theatre. He started working as a backstage worker for theatre and did few minor roles for plays as well as films. Mokashi made his directorial debut for theatre with the Marathi play, Sangeet Debuchya Mulee in 1999. He continued to work for theatre and made his directorial debut for cinema with the 2009 Marathi feature film, Harishchandrachi Factory. The film depicts the making of India's first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra, made by Dadasaheb Phalke. The film was acclaimed critically and won several awards. It was also selected as India's official entry to 82nd Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Personal life Paresh Mokashi was born to a Maharashtrian family in Pune and was brought up in Lonavala. He is a grandson of a noted Marathi writer D. B. Mokashi. Mokashi finished his schooling in Lonavla and acquired Bachelor of Arts degree from a Pune-based college. He has also formed his production company, "Mayasabha Productions", which has produced some of his own work including his 2005 Marathi play, Samudra and 2009 Marathi film, Harishchandrachi Factory. He currently lives in Mumbai and is married to theatre actor-writer Madhugandha Kulkarni, who had also done a minor role in Mokashi's debut film, Harishchandrachi Factory. Mokashi's struggle to make the film is included as one of the twenty inspiring stories in the book "Connect the Dots" by Rashmi Bansal, under the title "Truth Shall Prevail" in "Zubaan" section of the book.

Career

Theatre

Mokashi started as a backstage worker for a theatre group in Pune. After acting in couple of plays, Mokashi got associated with Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. While working as an organiser for their theatre festivals, Mokashi directed his first play Sangeet Debuchya Mulee (Debu's Daughters: The Musical) in Marathi for 1999 Prithvi Theatre festival. The play was also written by Mokashi himself. He directed few more plays including Mukam Post Bombilwadi (Bombilwadi: The Village), Sangeet Lagnakallol (The Roaring Marriage: The Musical) and Samudra (The Ocean).

All his plays got critical acclaim and won several awards on release.

Feature films Mokashi did a few small-time roles for Hindi TV serials and feature films, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) but soon he turned to writing and directing. Mokashi came across a biography of Dadasaheb Phalke, also known as the father of Indian cinema, written by Bapu Watve. With an idea of making film on Phalke, Mokashi started his research with the help of National Film Archive of India, Pune and finished the script by March 2005. he found it difficult to find producers for the film and it took three years to raise finances for the film. Declining the suggestions of making the film in Hindi, casting big stars, adding at least one title track, Mokashi decided to produce the film by himself through his production company, "Mayasabha Productions". Unlike typical biopic films, Mokashi used light humoured adventure style for the film. The film gathered wide critical acclaim and Mokashi was praised for the narrative storyline of the film. The film also participated in several national and international film festivals. It was selected as India's official entry to 82nd Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category along with 62nd British Academy Film Awards and 66th Golden Globe Awards but was not listed among the final five nominations.

Mokashi's next feature film Elizabeth Ekadashi was released on 14 November 2014. It revolved around kids growing up in poverty who have to sell off their bicycle to make the ends meet. The film received critical acclaim and commercial success and was selected as the opening film of 'Indian Panorama' at The International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Along with the Tamil film Kaaka Muttai, the film won National Film Award for Best Children's Film at the 62nd National Film Awards in 2015. Following a 5-year hiatus, Mokashi returned to film with the dark comedy Vaalvi, about a husband (Swapnil Joshi) planning to murder his mentally unstable wife (Anita Date-Kelkar). Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in was appreciative of Mokashi's direction and wrote, "The pitch-perfect cast has just the right attitude to a movie that invites us to consider the depth of human depravity and instead gives us an efficient and effective cruel comedy, as bloodless as it is ruthless".

Other work

After Mokashi's film competed for Academy Awards, in July 2010, he launched Shailaja Dekhmukh's Marathi book "...And The Oscar Goes To..." about Academy award-winning films and its history. In January 2011, he inaugurated 5th National Book Exhibition at Nagpur and mentioned that if he hadn't read Dadasaheb Phalke's biography in 2005, he would not have made the film. In March 2011, UTV World Movies launched a short film contest, "Premier: The Short Film Festival", for amateur and professional film makers. Mokashi was on the jury panel along with writer-director Sooni Taraporevala and director Raj Kumar Gupta. The top three winners were given a chance to work with Mokashi. In November 2011, Mokashi was made part of Disney and PVR Cinemas' joint initiative "My City My Parks", which focused on encouraging children about urban greenery. Mokashi inaugurated the event along with Bollywood actor Abhay Deol and director Amole Gupte. The child participants of the event were asked to create a project on the topic of environmental conservation, in the form of a film, photo-journal, murals or a theatre performance. Gupte and Mokashi also worked as mentors for the shortlisted participants. Mokashi was part of seminar session, "The Road Ahead: Globalism, the Digital Revolution and Other Attractions", with actor Kamal Haasan as its chairperson. The session also included other filmmakers like Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Rohan Sippy and Vikramaditya Motwane. In May 2011, Mokashi was seen explaining and exploring the myths about Indian history in an event organised by actor Nandu Madhav, who had portrayed Dadasaheb Phalke in Mokashi's film. At 84th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in December 2011, he opened a discussion about Marathi cinema with fellow participants like actor Mohan Agashe, actress Mrinal Kulkarni, Smita Talwalkar and director Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni. He mentioned that Marathi film industry should experiment with new subjects, however he also said that these experimentations may not guarantee favourable audience responses. In May 2012, Mokashi participated in the centenary of Indian cinema celebration organised by P. L. Deshpande Arts Academy in Mumbai. He was accompanied by another Marathi film director, Chandrakant Kulkarni, and was involved in two discussions, "Dadasaheb Phalke's cinematic journey" and "Hundred Years of Indian Cinema".

Creative work

Awards Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref(s) 2004 Alpha Gaurav Awards Best Director Sangeet Lagnakallol Rowspan="3"|2008 56th National Film Awards National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi Rowspan="13"|Harishchandrachi Factory Rowspan="2"|Maharashtra State Film Award Maharashtra State Film Award for Best Film Rowspan="2"| Maharashtra State Film Award for Best Director Rowspan="9"|2009 Gollapudi Srinivas Award Best Debutant Director Ahmedabad International Film Festival Best Feature Film 18th Aravindan Puraskaram Best Debutant Director Balasaheb Sarpotdar Award Best Feature Film 14th International Film Festival of Kerala Hassan Kutty Award for Best Debut Indian Film India's Official entry Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Not Nominated 1st International Film Festival Kolhapur Public Choice Award Marathi International Film and Theatre Awards Best Screenplay Pune International Film Festival Best Director (Marathi Section) 2010 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Audience Choice Awards Rowspan="2"|2015 62nd National Film Awards National Film Award for Best Children's Film Elizabeth Ekadashi Pune International Film Festival Sant Tukaram" Best International Marathi Film Elizabeth Ekadashi 2024 National Film Award Best Feature Film in Marathi Vaalvi 2010 – Majha Sanman Puraskar: Excellence in art 2010 – Acharya Atre Foundation, Pune: Excellence in cinema 2011 – P. B. Bhave Memorial Trust: Excellence in cinema 2012 – The Maharashtra Chapter of the Federation of Film Society of India: Contribution to the Marathi cinema.