Devashish Makhija On Dealing With Financial Crisis After Joram: 'Still Paying Off Debts'
In a recent interview with SCREEN, Devashish Makhija opened up how he is coping with the financial stress caused by the failure of the 2023-released film Joram.
Devashish Makhija, best known for writing and directing full-length feature films like Ajji, Oonga and Bhonsle, is all set with his maiden Netflix original, Gandhari, starring Taapsee Pannu. The screenwriter-turned-director, who has made four films in his 20-year-long career, will be returning with work on-screen two years after the massive failure of his film, Joram, starring Manoj Bajpayee. In a recent conversation, Makhija talked about his financial condition and how he has been coping with it.
In an interview with SCREEN, Devashish Makhija, who began his career as an Assistant Director for both Anurag Kashyap’s directorial feature film Black Friday (2004) and Shaad Ali’s blockbuster hit Bunty Aur Babli (2005), was asked about the real reason for choosing the path of feature films. In reply, he said, “There was no red pill, blue pill. It was a black pill. It’s been a very confusing journey. That’s why I’m 45, and I’m making my fifth film. If I had the two paths, choose one option, I’d be sitting on my 11th or 12th one."
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Makhija revealed that after Bunty Aur Babli, he made an animation film for Yash Raj Films and Disney but the first one, Roadside Romeo, tanked, and the makers pulled the plug on my film. “I lost three years there. I don’t know if, accidentally or synchronistically, I went down the Yash Raj path. But because that film got shelved, I walked away from a three-film deal I had with them," he said, adding, “They just wiped out three years of my life."
This is when Makhija began exploring the Naxalite situation and paved the way for his next film, Gandhari. However, his films got worldwide recognition. For instance, his recent feature film, Bhonsle had its world premiere at the 23rd Busan International Film Festival.
He was then asked if that opened more doors for him, “I don’t know, I’m not holding my breath. Bhonsle got more attention than Ajji. Joram got a lot more attention than Bhonsle. They opened zero doors. But what I’m open to doing now, which I wasn’t before, is listening to scripts. Because I want to be on location shooting than be locked up in a room. I’ve done 15 years of that, and I’m just feeling that I deserve that change."
It was in 2024 when Makhija won the Filmfare Awards in two categories – Best Film (Critics) and Best Story for his movie Joram. While talking about this, he shared, “When they called my name for the (Best) Story award, I went up the stage very slowly," adding, “It just felt like a very welcome surprise to be acknowledged by something that far on the spectrum from the space I’m trying to inhabit."
In the same conversation, Makhija revealed if actors like Rajkummar Rao or others have reached out to him to work together. He quipped, “Not really. But say, the people I want to work with, from Vikrant (Massey) to Rajkummar, they’ve spoken to me in the past. But no, not any direct ‘want to work with you’ kind of communication. They’re also the actors who are so busy right now! Even if they do reach out to me, they’d be like, ‘Can we do something in 2031?’ So where will that conversation go?"
Finally, talking about his financial condition, he revealed, “I’m still paying off those debts. It’s a long road. I don’t know when that journey will end. Estimating another one-and-a-half years. All the money I’m earning now, it’s getting funnelled there." But he has no such interest in producing a film independently again. “I’ve spoken to a lot of independent producers in the Malayalam film industry, the Marathi film industry, and in the Northeast, they operate like families. Everyone’s gotten each other’s back. Even the distributor is a friend of the investor and the producer. That’s not the case in Mumbai. There’s zero sense of community. Everyone’s out to get everyone else down," he explained.
He continued, “I get very affected. I got so affected that my IBS kicked in, I’ve been having loose motions for days, my hands go clammy when I’m talking about this. I have the chops to pull off impossible films creatively. I don’t have the chops to not answer calls when I owe someone money," adding, “I’ve struggled to make ends meet in my initial years in Mumbai, I never took out a loan." “I’m a great producer on the field, but I can’t be beholden for money. That’s a pressure I can’t handle," Makhija concluded.
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