Off To Kalakari Film Festival (Production, Indore)

INDORE DIARIES

Off To Kalakari Film Festival (Production)

Indore Diaries is a series of 3-part travel blog/article in the form of story-telling titled Pre-production, Production, Post-Production in which 3 students visit Indore for a film festival. Hope you’ve read the pre-production part if not here’s the link https://chrisdsouza148.wixsite.com/theinnocentkido/post/preparations-for-the-indore-trip-pre-production

On 17th March 2023, we boarded our train from Borivali station at 9:30 pm, there was a sudden dip in the temperature at night, when we entered the state of Madhya Pradesh and woke up by 6 am we had a sore throat, cough, and cold. Temperatures had fallen to 17 Degrees Celsius. We reached Indore between 9:30 – 10:00 am. As we were called to the venue in the evening and our accommodation had gone we had no choice. So we decided to visit a mall which we had to pass to get to our event venue. And also, direct transport to the venue was expensive. We reached the mall and realized it was just opened, looked like a month old, not many shops and stuff. No proper shops in the food court were opened. On top of that, we had a heated argument with our driver who bought us from Indore station to Trinity Mall because he was asking for more fare as per promised before. We later left and after struggling we finally got an auto-rickshaw from Ola, and before you ask for a cab online they were over our budget. We reached our venue and this Ola driver overcharged us. So, I put up a complaint to Ola, and luckily got a coupon. The rickshaw driver had warned us that we won’t be getting any cab, rickshaw, or any means of transport. Went to our hotel, and met the organizers, the director of the event Mr. Rishi Nikam sir. We were given a room by Shailendra sir, even tho it was theirs but he gave it to us. We freshened up, and had an interview and a meet-and-greet session later. Also were invited for lunch by the Kalakari Team, we felt so proud as there were only selected people over there for lunch. I later had a nap for an hour, and later at 7:30 pm went to the event. AND WON AN AWARD FOR THE BEST FILM IN WOMENS CATEGORY.

Receiving the award at Kalakari Film Festival

We had tears in our eyes, while on stage for receiving the award and the goodies. Later we had our dinner and were informed by the management they have arranged for a car for us to reach Indore station. While in the car Praveen bhai’s wife (didi) asked us if we wanted to explore the “Khao Gali” of Indore as we were talking about food and stuff and overexcited us said yesss we would love to go there and at night around 1:30 am we went to “Sarapha Market” before that we seen the Rajwada Palace.

The Specular Rajwada Palace Captured By Theinnocentkido

The lighting at night on the palace was best. Later we had some authentic Indori food, it rained it was such a great vibe. Later they all bid us goodbye at the station. We met some filmmakers returning from the same fest. We chit-chatted for 3+ hours then they left. And boarded the wrong train, stay tuned to know what happened next. Special thanks here to Rishi sir, Shail sir, Tanay sir, Kalakari Team, Devansh bhai, Praveen bhai, and didi. Kalakari film festival had the best hospitality I’ve ever received.

- Written By Theinnocentkido

(Chris DSouza)