Tere liye

Synopsis

Aditya, Ritu, Raghu, D.T. and Tara have grown up together in the studio lots. Now, in their bubbling youth, they have formed a band, using each one's creative faculties to the best. Aditya is the owner, Mr. Verma's son. Ritu is the General Manager's daughter. Tara's father is the canteen contractor of the studio and Raghu's father works here as a lightman. D.T. is an orphan. All these 5 kids together pursue a collective dream - a dream of their Band being successful. Their parents don't approve of their musical leanings. There is a lot of conflict inside the tender minds of these kids who are caught in a Catch - 22 situation of choice between pursuing their parents' ambitions and their own musical dream. Piya Anand, a film actress, happens to be shooting in the studio. Their paths cross, they spend some time together and she realizes what she's missing in life - Freedom, Happiness, Hope, Dreams, Friends - words she had only heard before. Gradually she too, becomes a part of the band. When everything seems to be going at a smooth pace, a crisis develops jeopardizing their togetherness. It seems that there is no way out to prevent the band from falling apart. In these times of trial and turbulence, the Band's integrity is put to test and they pass this test - with their values and, in style.

In an industry, which runs on name and established professionals; very rarely does one gets to see an effort by all new comers or practically non-entities of the industry. Sanjay Gadhvi's Tere Liye is one such film. Tere Liye is all about hope, freedom, dreams, togetherness and sacrifice.

After being an assistant to Anant Balani and Deepak Shegal, Sanjay was approached by Devang Dholakia to make a film. Tu hi Bataa was to be their first film with the likes of Raveena Tandon and Arjun Rampal, to be shot by ace cinematographer Ashok Mehta with lyrics by Anand Bakshi and music by Viju Shah. But unfortunately the film was prematurely stopped as Devang had no real experience of practical filmmaking and when the first song was shot and went over budget, he got the jitters. To get a feel of what lies ahead, Tere Liye was decided upon. The idea of the film had been in Sanjay's 'recycle bin' for some time. He casually mentioned it to Anant Balani who on the spot came out with the film's opening scene. Extremely happy with the scene, Sanjay requested Anant to write the film for him. Once sure of the script, Sanjay went about his casting. Sanjay saw close to two thousand aspirants before deciding on his six lead characters. Justifying his choices, Sanjay emphatically maintains that their performances are the major highlights of the film.

Once the idea and producer were in place, Sanjay, with his self-admitted gift of the gab went around getting what he wanted for his film. Realizing fully well that in this film he will not have the Raveenas and Ashok Mehtas to shoulder the outcome of the film, Sanjay 'stripped himself' to the world. He told the producer to 'lock' the money for the film first and then make the film. While Devang arranged the money, another few months went by. But finally things fell into the place and in February 2000, the film went on the floors.

The film was shot in flat 28 days at Ramoji Rao Filmcity, Hyderabad with 8 songs (the talkie portions were canned in 18 days flat) since the studio lent itself to the story.

The film has been shot by Pushan Kripalani , a young cinematographer who has done his M.A. in Cinematography from the University of Bristol, Dept. of Film and Television, UK. Much of the work needed to create even the basic look had to be done through lighting since the budget would not allow even the basic filters to be hired. He has given the film a very young feel, not like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai though, he emphasizes. And in the circumstances it was a challenge to shoot quickly and yet get good results and that has more than been achieved, he feels. The actors were wonderful to work with and being newcomers there were no starry nakhras and they gladly stood themselves while Pushan did the lighting. But shooting the songs with liberal use of steadicam was what excited Pushan the most and he is the first to acknowledge choreographer Ahmed's Khan's role in the song picturizations.

Another highlight of the film is the music by newcomer duo Jeet - Pritam. Since the main characters play band members there is a lot of peppy music in the film with a lot of drums and guitar to retain the 'band sound.' One song Suno Piya was recorded using only the guitar and vocal with no other instrument at all. Initially Pritam was a bit skeptical about the final result but more than happy with the way it finally shaped out.