Shane Slater
With a film industry only rivalled by the United States in terms of the number of productions, the selection of the Indian submission for the Best International Feature Oscar is always fiercely competitve. And when 2018: Everyone is a Hero was selected this year, director Jude Anthany Joseph was as surprised as anyone. Based on the true events of the devastating 2018 floods in the Indian state of Kerala, this inspiring drama is an impressive recreation of that disaster and sense of community it fostered. Recently, Awards Radar caught up with Joseph to discuss the making of the film, its environmentalist message and his personal connection to the story.
Shane Slater: How did you become part of this project and, you what was the journey to get it this big production on screen?
Jude Anthany Joseph: This film is based on true events. To be frank, I am one of the victims of the flood, which happened in 2018, in Kerala, India. So, my house was drowned and I lost my work. My family was in another place. So, we couldn’t connect, because there was no network. So I thought, that’s the end of my life, because the rain was still there for at least four or five days continuously. And if the rain would last for another two days, the entire Kerala will be flooded. So I thought, that’s the end of my life.
Once the flood was over, I could meet my family again. Then I was going through the newspapers during the flood. And I watched the TV news, YouTube, and I came to know that there was this huge success story that the people of Kerala stood together to save each other. And there was this humanity, and there was this unity among the people, irrespective of the religion, caste and everything. So, since I was also a victim, I thought I should tell the story to the world that humanity always wins.
So that’s how I tried to make a script about that. I picked up all the stories in newspapers, I fictionalized certain things, but most of the stories are real stories. The crew and the artists who worked on this film, they are also victims of the flood. So we all together made this film, in order to give a message that we survived, in spite of the disaster hitting us. And then the disaster came because we, humans, tried to destroy the nature. We have been constructing flats near the river, and the water couldn’t go anywhere. So it had to come to our houses.
We should save nature. And the best way to communicate that message is through film, so that the people will watch the film and they will get connected to the emotions of the characters in the film. And through that, I can convey the same message saying that this is how nature is going to come to us if we are trying to destroy it. So we should save nature.
That’s how the film came to be. And fortunately, there was this production company, Kavya Film Company, that was convinced by the script. Though it’s a huge budget film for the Malayalam film industry, where I work, he said we can go ahead with this because this is a great story. And we tried our best to be the best team. The pre-production took almost two years and we created a huge tank and we created so many houses and a huge set. And I would say I was very satisfied when I saw the footage and after they did the background score. I knew that this film can go places and people will love the film.
SS: How did you cast these memorable characters?
JAJ: When I completed the script, the first thing that came to my mind is that the characters should be connected to the audience. So they need to be convincing. And I approached a few actors in our industry to play the roles. Fortunately, they were all very happy to be part of this film, since it’s about the Kerala floods. The official film about the flood from Kerala. They were very eager to work in this film.
So that part was very easy for me, because whomever I approached for the role, they were ready from the beginning. And they read the script, and they loved it. I just told them that this is the character I want you to play. And they said, “Yeah, of course, we can do it.” They have seen these characters through the newspapers and the news videos, and in real life too, because they were also victims of the flood. So that part was easy. 129 actors were in this film. All of them were very happy to be working in this film.
SS: What was the biggest challenge in making this film?
JAJ: The biggest challenge was the heavy rain. We had to shoot the scenes with rains and propellers. It was a hectic shoot, and it was a continuous shoot. For example, if you take the helicopter scene in the film, we took eight continuous nights, the whole nights. We started from 7pm at night, and we would finish it by 6am in the morning. And with the rain and propeller and huge crowd, with multiple cameras. So it was very hectic, but still, the people were so energetic till the end of the last shot. I saw my crew members at 2am shivering, but they were still very energetic and saying “let’s do this.” So it was challenging, but it was like a reunion of the people of Kerala doing the same thing again, just like they did in 2018 flood.
SS: This story means so much to a lot of people in Kerala. What was it like to screen the film for them?
JAJ: My producer, and some people who have been in the film had this fear that the people have seen this disaster on screen in news. So will they be able to watch the film on big screen, this disaster thing again? But my belief was that once the film starts and the audience get connected to the characters, they will be able to watch the film, since the film doesn’t deal with the disaster, it deals with the human emotions and how they are going to survive. So if we love the characters, they will definitely love the film.
On the first day when the film was released, I was there in the movie theater. And then after the interval, I came to know that people were discussing the film. They said, “Yeah, there’s something coming after the interval for the second half.” They were waiting for the characters to be rescued by someone. And at the end of the film, I saw people standing up and clapping, and they were in tears. And when I came out of the theater, the people came to me and they hugged me, and they cried a lot, saying that you recreated the whole scenario again. It was very amazing to watch how people stood together. Most of the people were crying, including me and my family. As I’m telling you this, I’m getting emotional.
SS: Has the film contributed to more environmental awareness or policy changes?
JAJ: Yes. After the film was released, there was this controversy that the government didn’t do anything during the flood. And people were discussing about how we should be more prepared to face this kind of disaster in future. There were lots of healthy discussions on TV channels saying that nature is getting destroyed by us and we should take care of it, and so many people from the nature associations came in to write articles about how to save nature. And there were large campaigns going to save nature. So yes, the film did change something in people’s minds. After the film was released, it was like people were very afraid that if a flood comes again, what would we do to be prepared?
SS: What was it like for your film to chosen to represent India at the Oscars?
JAJ: For me, I wanted to be a filmmaker just to do some films and fulfill my dream. My first film was a huge hit in Kerala and it was loved by people around India. So my next challenge was to keep that momentum and I tried to make good films. And when this film came, I was like, “This is my biggest film in my life and I should work very hard for it.” And the film was a huge success in the box office and the highest grossing film ever in Malayalam.
So, I was planning my next film and suddenly one day, I got this news that my film has been selected as the official entry for the Oscars. It was like a dream that was never in my wildest dreams. This is a peak for a film to go. The film got us here to LA and now we are working on the Oscar promotions. This is the best any filmmaker can dream of from India and a place like Kerala, which is a very small state.
For me, this is the world. This is my dream come true moment and I hope we will win the Oscar for India for this time, because we have been trying to get the Oscar for the last 60 plus years and we have never won for the foreign language category. So I think all Indians are praying for us to get it this time. I believe this film has the potential to win because this film talks about humans, this film talks about how they are struggling to make a living. And it’s a global subject, where people come together when disaster hits us. It’s like the hurricane in the US or an earthquake in some Asian country. At the end of the day, we are humans and we need to survive this disaster. So I think we have a great chance.
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