Raghu, the protagonist in Harshad Nalawade’s debut feature film, Follower, blindly believes in a political leader and refuses to hear a word against him. His thought process is fascinating and illumines some existential questions; what makes someone latch on to someone or something so passionately? Do they feel more comforted by the meaning it gives their lives? The search for answers to these led Harshad to make a film probing into where a person like Raghu comes from and why he does what he does. “I have many friends and cousins who think and act like Raghu. In fact, to some extent, there’s a Raghu inside me as well. And I realised that many of us are insecure about plenty of things in our lives. Such insecurities can lead us on the path of extremism. So, Raghu is a mix of a lot of people who I know are unable to deal with isolation and failures.”
Follower is certainly a character driven narrative, Raghu being the hook for its viewer. However, he flourishes on a carefully constructed political and topographical canvas, both a triumphant testament to the filmmaker’s storytelling and world-building capabilities. Explaining the political canvas, Harshad describes, “Follower is my reaction to the times I am living in. 2013-14 was a very significant period in Indian politics and its awareness among people. Two very popular leaders emerged as oppositions against the incumbent government at that time. And it was also the time when social media started flooding into our lives, resulting into more polarisation. How the political landscape started shaping up after that was really amazing. People started expressing their angst online and latched on to the narratives of the new political leaders of that time. Their unconditional belief in a leader and how he would guide us into a utopian time, intrigued me. I wanted to tell a story about one such young man, who blindly believes in his leader.”
Furthermore, the town of Belgaum proves to be a topographical canvas, replete with socio cultural and political nuances, that add much depth to Follower’s narratorial agenda. Harshad gives some more insight into his choice of geographical setting, “I am from Belgaum, a small town in northern Karnataka and spent most of my formative years there. It is a complicated town caught in a dispute between two neighbouring states and their constant fight for domination over it. So, I wanted to set this story in my hometown and tell a very personal story about my region and the people living there and because Belgaum is a polarised town, it gave me an opportunity to create a microcosm of India.”
The visual language of the film is also inventive, much more since the film was shot of a rather low budget, necessitating ingenuity. “So, we had to do a lot of reverse engineering (I did have an engineering career after all). Usually, you decide the number of days for a shoot and then decide the budget accordingly. But in our case, we had to decide the shooting days according to the budget we had and it was only sixteen days. So, our planning of the shoot was supposed to be very solid and clear because the limitations were a challenge and to overcome those challenges, you end up finding very interesting techniques. There’s a scene in my film where two characters are talking to each other while riding on their respective scooters. Ideally you would take three shots; one with both of them in the frame and two close ups of each character from an angle. But I knew I didn’t have enough time to shoot those close ups, so I just shot them in one frame and asked them to do the whole scene in one long take. The impact that scene has because of its long take and no cutting, is something that we couldn’t have achieved by shooting conventionally. It is one of the favourite scenes of most people.”
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Words Nidhi Verma
Date 28.10.2023