I am writing this on my flight from San Francisco to London now after a dream launch of my next film as a filmmaker, Joyguru, primarily based on the life of internationally acclaimed singer and Indian mystic Parvathy Baul, across the USA for which I am visiting the country for the fourth time in a little more than two years after the release of #Homecoming (February 2022).
Joyguru is a musical feature film in the Hindi language... but the film is not a biopic. The film was recently announced after the end of a performance by Parvathy Baul herself at a packed Times Square which was received with a thunderous applause at one of the biggest Bengali New Year festival celebrations.
It felt surreal when she invited me onstage, introduced me and talked about our upcoming film. Our film is the flagship India-USA-UK-France co-production. After Times Square, we announced the film at Williams, Oregon at the end of the concluding performance of Parvathy Baul as part of her month-long USA Baul Yatra. Our film will depict the eventful life journey of internationally acclaimed Indian mystic artist and folk music icon Radhika Das Baul (fictional account) which she shares with popular Bollywood film music director Ritwik during their unlikely collaboration for a pioneering music album of Baul songs transcreated in Hindi. During the process, they form a unique bond, a few days before her sudden and mysterious disappearance from her ashram near Santiniketan.
Parvathy Baul is a practitioner, performer, teacher and lineage holder of the Baul tradition from Bengal, India. She is also an instrumentalist, storyteller and painter.
The depth of her mesmerising performance is rooted in her deep spiritual practice. Parvathy’s performance work emerges from a long lineage of master Baul singers, dancers and spiritual teachers. She has performed in over 40 countries, including prestigious concert halls and music festivals.
Joyguru will be produced by Aparna Dasgupta and Aniruddha Dasgupta of California-based global studio ADited Motion Pictures along with LOK Arts Collective. With a focus on a slate of global Indian cinema, this is our next feature film production together after Devi Chowdhurani.
London-based Moringa Studios owned by Munsur Ali, chairman, London City Corporation: Department of Culture and Heritage, and Paris-based producer from France — Chayan Sarkar, ambassador of Toulouse city and president, Gange Sur Seine, Paris, have joined as co-producers for Joyguru.
Since childhood, I have always been intrigued by Baul music and Baul philosophy. Parvathydi’s songs have been the primary part of my playlist since the time I started writing #Homecoming. I started researching on her life in 2022 and met her in February 2023 expressing my desire to make Joyguru. We connected instantly and I spent the majority of last year travelling in and out of her ashram near Santiniketan understanding the rhythm of her life, attending the retreat programmes she conducted, hearing and noting the nuances of her fascinating journey from Moushumi Pariyal to Maa Parvathy Baul.
The film will be shot from 2025 across Santiniketan, Calcutta, Vrindavan, Kerala in India and in parts of UK, USA and France. Ace Indian cinematographer Ravi Varman (ISC) (Ponniyin Selvan, Barfi, Ram Leela, Sanju, Tamasha) will be shooting the film.
I had met producers (Aniruddha and Aparna, USA) and co-producers (Munsur from London and Chayan from Paris) during my travels in the last couple of years at international film festival screenings of
#Homecoming across the USA, UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and UAE.
Varied encounters and experiences in these trips have transformed me personally and professionally making LOK an international arts collective. Besides, a few checklists were ticked off and beyond — getting standing ovations from global audiences transcending the barriers of language, being in Rome and visiting the Colosseum, a wonder of the world, walking to Vatican City from Rome, taking a day trip to Naples, standing in awe of Michelangelo's ‘David’ in Florence, a major masterpiece in art history, visiting La Fenice in Venice, one of the most renowned names in the history of opera and Italian theatre, attending meetings at the Guildhall and screening #Homecoming at Picture House cinemas.
Whenever I left a place I had travelled to, I left a version of myself behind — a part of myself which I discovered there, a part of myself for which I have to go back there to reconnect with. The sole purpose of my life as an artiste remains to travel inward and outward.
