A presentation on Paresh Mokashi, Director, Harishchandrachi Factory. How he emerged as an entrepreneur and finally directed his first movie.

4. Early Life
•Paresh Mokashi was born in Pune,
son of a journalist.
•He is a grandson of a noted
Marathi writer D. B. Mokashi.
•He did his schooling in Dr B N
Purandare Bahuvidh Vidyalaya,
Lonavala.
•Paresh joined Modern College in
Pune and enrolled for a BA in
Geography.

5. Theatre- Paresh’s true Calling
Mokashi started as an backstage worker for a theatre group in Pune.
“I used to act when I was in school - everybody does that. But when I
came to Pune it was a big world, a different world. I was exposed to lots
of things and one of them was professional theatre.”

6. •Paresh joined the ‘Theatre Academy’ - a well-respected theatre group
known for staging plays like Ghashiram Kotwal, Mahanirvan,
Mahapur, Begum Barwe and Teen Paishyacha Tamasha
•Paresh started doing small roles as a part of the group. He helped the co-
actors with costumes
•He participated in the plays made for children by a Berlin based theatre
group, Grips-Theater.
•After acting in couple of plays, Mokashi got associated with Prithvi
Theatre, Mumbai.
The journey started……

7. Hurdles Paresh faced..
•For Paresh theatre was not a commercial setup. His family members
started saying, “shauk apni jagha hai aur rozi-rote apni jahga”
•For the sake of his family Paresh gave UPSC exam. He even did a computer
course but at the end of the day his heart was not in it.
•Paresh, at the same time was also not working enough to grow as an actor.
He was not good at auditions. He was more concerned with film making
which is not an easy job to get.
•Although Paresh got to work in few Marathi television shows and movies,
he even got the chance to work in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movie Hum Dil
De Chuke Sanam and earned money. But essentialy acting was not his
choice rather it was filmmaking as he never believed in self promotion.

8. Got the chance to do what Paresh wanted
In 1999, destiny opened a new door.
Prithvi was organising an
international theatre festival and
looking to stage some contemporary
Indian plays. Sanjana Kapoor called
Paresh
Mokashi directed his first play Sangeet
Debuchya Mulee (Debu's Daughters:
The Musical) in Marathi for 1999
Prithvi Theatre festival. The play was
also written by Mokashi himself. He
directed few more plays
including Mukam Post Bombilwadi
(Bombilwadi: The Village), Sangeet
Lagnakallol (The Roaring Marriage:
The Musical) and Samudra (The
Ocean)..

9. Picture shuru – Harishchandrachi Factory

10. Paresh got the idea to start working on Harishchandrachi Factory after reading the
Bapu Vatave’s book of Phalke. The book had around 200 pages which he read in 4
hours .
It was that quick and final a decision. And writing the script did not take
long either. Paresh researched his subject further, at the Film Institute, the
National Film Archives and a couple of other books and experts.

11. •Paresh finalized the script in two
months.
•For Paresh problem started when it
came to arranging fund for the
project. But, he says, it was a very
typical adventure. Every first time a
film maker has to go through this
experience.
•Paresh wanted to keep it very simple
at that time with no songs, no big
stars. Other said to Paresh”ek gaana
toh daal hi sakte hain”, but he refused.
•No producer wanted to put money
and after waiting for 3 years Mokashi
decided to produce the film on his
own for which he mortgaged his
house.

12. •Paresh made the film with the budget of Rs. 4 crore and despite all
struggle it was the most expensive Marathi movie made at that time.
“We needed a big budget because it is a period film. Not only did we
have to erect sets but also look into details like what kind of film
equipment was used back then.”
•The film was mainly shot in Pune, Mumbai, Karjat and London

13. •The film finally released worldwide on 29th January, 2010.
•With such great response and word of mouth production houses like UTV
and Paprika Media came to get associated with Paresh as official
distributors of the film.