Nautanki (2022)

"Nautanki" is the coming-of-age story of Joshi, a small town boy living with his grandmother, away from his parents. As his high school comes to an end, his mother calls him back to his hometown, leaving him little time to say goodbye to his friend, Priti, and this carefree life. With the limited days remaining, Joshi embarks on a journey to explore the town with Priti. He faces a further dilemma when he gets into a fight with Priti over his careless decisions. Completing a perfect storm of problems in Joshi's life is local bully Juggal bhaiya, who has matters of love to figure out and keep his social media page running with the unwilling support of Joshi. As the 10th boards pass, Joshi contemplates his decisions and gets punched a few times, all to realize his mistakes and how to own and admit one's mistakes. Before leaving his carefree life, Joshi has to mend his friendship, stand up to a bully and maybe learn how to care and grow up.

  • Sarthak Verma
    Director
  • Sarthak Verma
    Writer
  • Sarthak Verma
    Producer
  • Arjun Singla
    Key Cast
    "Joshi"
  • Jyotsna Miskeen
    Key Cast
    "Preeti"
  • Ishaan Tewari
    Key Cast
    "Juggal Bhaiya"
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 31 minutes 5 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 7, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    10,736 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.90:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Sarthak Verma

SARTHAK VERMA (born 18 Jan 1997) is a debutant film-maker. He is an Alumni of Symbiosis Centre for Media & Communication, Pune. Currently working in Window Seat Films as an Assistant Director of Imtiaz Ali.

Born in Delhi and completed his schooling from the city of Lucknow. A former medical aspirant, Sarthak changed his career paths after discovering his true passion, films.
Apart from Writing & Directing, Sarthak has worked as an Editor, Cinematographer and a Sound Designer in several short films.

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Director Statement

The idea of the film was conceived back in 2018. The world of school students always seemed interesting to explore. There’s a lot of truth hidden in the innocence of kids, and the attempt was to express a part of it.

After assembling a team of passionate filmmakers, we ventured on to make this feature-length film. The film’s treatment was kept similar to the Hindi Cinema because we are a big admirer. Shot over more than 90 days, the crew had the times of our life. Reminiscing our own school days, we made this film. This helped in an honest representation of the world we wanted to create. During the production of the film, we were faced with a lot of challenges. The workflow was designed under a strict budget constraint but at the same time the scope of our film was ambitious (as independent filmmakers). But in our journey, we were blessed with people who helped in making this dream project possible. With this film, we only hope the viewers to remember some part of their own childhood and rediscover something precious about themselves.