Bol Bol Raani, itta itta aani directed by Varsha Sunil Rane

“Bol Bol Raani, Itta Itta Aani” is a Marathi short film and the first film production venture of All Play Productions. We are grateful to “16th Dada Saheb Phalke film festival - 26” for officially selecting our film and giving us recognition. This is a huge encouragement for our creativity and dreams.

Mrs. Varshaa Raane is the founder and creator of All Play Productions. She is a trained theatre artist and has completed several filmmaking courses at FTII. She has written and directed this Marathi short film.

We began by training rural and tribal children in theatre, and soon established a ‘School of Drama Theatre’ with a six-month curriculum that offers children a complete experience in this field. This film was created to introduce our students to the world of cinema.

Our students were already working on a play in which a city girl challenges the superstitions and limiting beliefs of village children. Building on this idea, we decided to create a film where a teenage girl is irked by a tantrik woman who comes to her village. Believing her to be a fraud, the girl, along with her friends, challenges her authenticity.

The lead role of the tantrik woman is played by Mrs. Varshaa Raane herself. This character is inspired by a house help from her childhood. The film has been made using the resources available to us and with a minimal budget, as this is our first experimental film.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of Atharva University, Mumbai, along with students from the Atharva School of Film and Television, have served as the production team and also contributed as actors. This means that most of the team members came from non-filmmaking backgrounds. In spite of the few challenges we faced, the team members’ enthusiasm and support have been the backbone of this project.

We are grateful to Mr. Sunil Rane, founder of Atharva University, Mumbai, for his guidance and support throughout this process. We are encouraged by this journey into filmmaking and are already working towards our next project of a feature film.