After Dus Kahaniyaan (2007) and Bombay Talkies (2013), the next big film created by a group of different directors is X: Past is Present. 11 indie filmmakers have come together to tell the story of a mysterious filmmaker known to everyone as K, the character and story are based on the life story of ‘Q’ aka Qaushiq Mukherjee, one of the directors on this project. During a conference in Goa the directors conceptualized and planned out the movie and agreed to finish it in a two-day shoot in March 2013
The film that aims at depicting K’s past life and how it affects him currently through his romantic and sexual relationships, stars some of the fine Indian actors including, actor & filmmaker Rajat Kapoor (as K).
12 Bollywood actresses play the roles of his exes: Radhika Apte, Huma Qureshi, Swara Bhaskar, Piaa Bajpai, Aditi Chengappa, Rii Sen, Pooja Ruparel, Parno Mitra, Bidita Bag, Richa Shukla, Neha Mahajan, and Gabriella Schmidt.
The 11 filmmakers on the project, apart from Q are Abhinav Shiv Tiwari (Oass), Anu Menon (London Paris New York), Hemant Gaba (Shuttlecock Boys), Pratim D Gupta (Paanch Adhyay), Rajshree Ojha (Aisha), Sandeep Mohan (Love, Wrinkle Free), Sudhish Kamath (Good Night Good Morning), Suparn Verma (Acid Factory), Nalan Kumarasamy (Soodhu Kavvum), and film critic Raja Sen.
“The idea was to build a bridge between different kinds of cinema. We didn’t think it would have this kind of a star-cast then. But the more we thought about it, the more the project just kept getting bigger and bigger,” Sudhish Kamath told HuffPost India.
X: Past Is Present is a concoction of different genres, and styles. The film aims at depicting the character of a confusing layered person through his sexual relationships.
“It is not an omnibus or anthology film. Neither of the individual threads are stand-alone films. They’re connected in multiple ways, via character relationships, cause and effect, karma… by the end, there are several connections that complete the picture.”
Each filmmaker shoots with his own crew and has many cinematographers and sound designers. The final decisions are made by avid movie’s editors: Sreekar Prasad and Vijay Prabhakaran. The film is slated to release in theatres on November 20.
