All For The Record "My Japanese Niece" Director Reveals Its Budget

Rorrkychand Wahengbam *

Mohen Naorem

In a bid to transcend the trends of Manipuri Film Industry, one of the prolific filmmaker, Mohen Naorem who is currently working on an upcoming film is all set to break a record with his forthcoming international mega project "My Japanese Niece" (MJN).

In a tete-a-tete with W Rorrkychand Singh, the 35-year-old filmmaker said that the project is estimated at around Rs. 1 crore.

"Normal films in Manipur cost Rs 10-20 lakhs for a Digital format. Ours is in 35mm format and it is average as compared to Indian film industry. We estimate more budget than the Rs 80-90 lakhs. Most of the expenditure will be incurred in post-production and as we are having 3 languages, the film print will be more," claimed Mohen.

The director and producer of "MJN" is confident about his ambitious project, "If I failed in the Manipur market, I have two avenues- Japanese market and International audiences", he added.

Contending about the influence of Hindi film industry in Manipuri silver-screen, Mohen said "Manipur audiences have been bored with Bollywood format and same star casts."

"Out of odd 60 films produced every year, they see the same artists in more than 50 films which ultimately is a very difficult to watch same person repeatedly without much change in his acting," added the Screenplay writer of "School Karusi".

As per the production house, Legend Studio, in the upcoming movie, Yu Asada, a Japanese model is playing the lead role called Asada, who came to Manipur in search of her uncle, a WWII soldier. The "adventure film", which is likely to be launched around October 2012 would be revolving around the journey of the girl to various parts of the Manipur including the Indo-Myanmar border.

Speaking about the upcoming flick and its female protagonist, Mohen said "It is an adventure film filled with many mysteries and adventures in the wild jungles of Manipur.

With this film people could see some of the real incidents down the memory lane. Her acting should be natural, not conventional film type. It is like her journey in Manipur to pay homages to her Japanese Uncle as done by others all these years."