A state-of-the-art studio for films is likely to come up in Bihar.

  Way back in 1985, when Arvind Ranjan Das headed for Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, for doing a course with specialization in film editing after virtually leaving his banker's job, some of his family members and friends were quite sceptical about his move. He had done much here as a theatre person under the banner of Antarang, but Bollywood was considered too uncertain a place and too competitive for building a career for a person with middle class background.    But Arvind was undeterred by the thought of struggle to carve out a place in the world of filmmaking. And the struggle is not over yet, even though he has worked for several years for many big names in the field of TV and films like Balaji Telefilms, Time (a film-production company) and Bombino, a video company, in various capacities of senior director, creative and programming head and subject expert. Unfortunately for him, his big banner film 'System', produced by Jhamu Sugandh of the Lagaan and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam fame, was stalled in post-production phase due to Sugandh's untimely death.

Today, Arvind is at a crucial juncture. His feature film - Ghazab Nagaria - written, produced and directed by him is likely to be released shortly. And he has taken up a much more ambitious project of a film that would be 100 per cent produced in Bihar with everything local, from actors, financers to equipment.

Arvind's obsession, so to say, with Bihar is not new. After completing his FTII course in 1987, he returned to Patna with the objective of making films in Bihar. For five years, he tried to give a boost to film industry in Bihar, even while working part-time for Doordarshan, Patna. Those who knew him wondered what he was doing in Patna instead of heading for Mumbai to earn name, fame and money.

Finally, he quit his banker's job in 1992 and headed for Mumbai. But his longing to work in Bihar persisted. His feature film project 'Chand Mera Hai' is the result of that. Speaking about this, he says, "This film is conceptualized with the idea of a film whose actors and technicians are all from Bihar, for which camera, lighting and other equipment are not brought from outside. Not only the entire film shooting will be done in Bihar but the post-production work will also be completed in the state itself." For this purpose, Arvind says, he is currently training 25 youths in acting and technical aspects of filmmaking in the state capital. He will be the writer and director of this proposed film.

If 'Chand Mera Hai' takes off as planned, it may herald a new era so far as filmmaking in Bihar is concerned. For, the Bhojpuri films made in Bihar are essentially Bollywood productions in nature. Arvind's project has received support in various ways from people like film distributor Raju Barelia, Bollywood's technician Dinesh Jaiswar, Patliputra Film and TV Academy's Santosh Prasad, All India Radio's retired official Ashok Shrivastava and Filamchi's Captain Mohan Rawat, among others.    source TNN