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Happy New Year Twenty-Ten
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From America with love
Written by CLARA A RODRIGUES
Friday, 08 January 2010 01:40
‘Mogachi Zor’- Fountain of Love will be Bonifacio Dias’s first
directorial venture on a celluloid film 35mm. This will be Bonifacio’s
eighth film. His earlier ones were done on a tele-film format.
Bonifacio made the transition from the stage of tiatr to that of
filmmaking. And his works have met with quite a lot of appreciation.
Each time has been a learning experience. In every creation of his, he
brings out something new, something he learnt in his last creative
venture, he has constantly gone on to improve on his skills and style,
every experience being a learning experience for him.
A proof of his determination is ‘Zababdari’, a film which was the first
Konkani film to be released on Delhi Doordarshan after the inclusion of
Konkani in the 8th schedule of the constitution.
The USP of ‘Mogachi Zor’- Fountain of love is its bilingual feature. The
film which includes the dialogues and the songs has a mix of Konkani and
English. The film may have chosen the path of bilingualism as the plot
in the story alternates between Goa and America. And for the purpose, a
25-day schedule was chalked out in the director’s itinerary to shoot for
the purpose.
And the location was the beautiful and breathtaking Niagara Falls in
America.
The location was not recreated with a curtain of the frothy falls placed
behind the characters and situations, the crew were actually flown to
America. An expensive proposition but no less an improbable one. The
shooting of films out of state and country is a reaffirmation of a
trend. A trend that is certainly not easy to do after doing the maths of
costs and overheads. For Bonifacio the problem was to an extent lessened
after the producer of the film, Succorina D’ Costa who also happens to
be the lead actress of the film helped. “Succorina is of Goan origin but
currently staying in America. Shooting in a foreign location is costly
but she helped us a lot,” says Bonifacio.
Besides, Bonifacio also held an audition in America itself so as to
avoid the necessity of having to fly over the actors to America. “We had
a low profiled audition. And we selected many overseas Goans, who were
happy to work in the film,” says Bonifacio.
‘Mogachi Zor’ has Rick who is an American as its lead actor. The story
of the film is about how a girl battling a prolonged illness works for
the good of society even if it means sacrificing much for herself.
Being made on a budget of 80-90 lakhs, the director of ‘Mogachi Zor’
says that till now he has always recovered the amount invested in his
projects. However he adds, “We need more assistance, which the
government can provide us. People do not come to the theatres to watch a
Konkani film because the standard is not very high. People want to see
quality. They also want to see stars acting in the films and to sign
stars you need a lot of money,” opines Bonifacio.
http://www.navhindtimes.in/buzz/7156-from-america-with-love
