Exclusive - Parthiv Gohil on Gujarati movie Kutch Express and Manasi Parekh winning National Award: 'We need more conversation around regional cinema'

Singer and producer Parthiv Gohil's Gujarati film Kutch Express, made with love and effort, won the Best Film at the National Film Awards this year.

In an exclusive interview with MoneyControl, Gohil said he can't be more proud. In the interview, Parthiv Gohil also shared his journey, inspirations, and the impact of this award on regional cinema.

Pathiv Gohil's production house, Soul Sutra, aimed to create something unique and symbolic of the modern woman.

Kutch Express, directed by Viral Shah, tells the story of Mungi, a small-town woman who discovers herself through art, independence, and creation. The film's driving force was to explore female narratives, rarely seen in Gujarati cinema.

Gohil says the National Award win is a historic moment for Gujarati cinema, marking the first time an actress from Gujarat and his wife Manasi Parekh winning the Best Actress National Award.

Gohil recounted the emotional moment when they received the news and said his wife was crying. "She was crying, I was crying...our whole family was very, very emotional."

Golhi strongly believes that the National Award has boosted regional cinema and hopes it will encourage more OTT players to acquire regional content.

He said Kutch Express stands out due to its international-level production quality and approach.

He further said that the National Award win has given his production house prestige and motivation to create more quality content. He and his wife, Manasi, are committed to telling stories in Gujarati, their native language, and promoting regional cinema.

Excerpts from the Interview: 

Sarika: Congratulations on your production, Kutch Express, winning the National Award. How does it feel to have your film recognized at the national level?

Parthiv: It's great that a Gujarati film that we have made with so much love and effort is getting the recognition that it deserves on a national level. This National Film Award feels very, very special because this is just the second film that Manasi and I have produced.

Sarika: What inspired you to produce a film like Kutch Express, and what was the driving force behind its creation?

Parthiv: It's a very interesting story about Kutch Express. I was in a cafe when I met the writer Rahul Malik for the first time. We started talking, and he started bouncing a lot of story ideas and a lot of different concepts. That's when Manasi and I decided to meet him. He thought that there was something beautiful that he could base in Kutch. So he went to Kutch for a recce, and that's when the place inspired the characters and the story of Mungi, the central character. The driving force behind Kutch Express was to do something that normal producers in Gujarat might shy away from. Not many female narratives are explored in Gujarati cinema. And we wanted to do something symbolic of the modern woman who knows her mind and discovers herself. It is about art, independence, and creation.

Sarika: Your wife Manasi got Best Actress; it is a first for any Gujarati actor. How does it feel? She told us you both just cried. Has it sunk in now?

Parthiv: Winning the Best Actress National Award is a big, big deal for Manasi. It's the first time in the history of Gujarati cinema that an actress has won this in 70 years. I have seen her work hard; she has lost weight for this character. She got into the body language and the diction of the character months before we started work. And if you see the film, it doesn't feel like it's a city-born girl who's playing the role of a small-town woman. It really feels very natural. Her entire personality and her entire performance are extremely amazing, and she deserves this national award. So all of us are very proud. And when we got to know she was crying, I was crying. Our whole family was very, very emotional because it's a big deal for all of us.

Sarika : The film has received critical acclaim for its unique storytelling and direction. Can you share your experience working with the director and the cast?

Parthiv: From the conception till the pre-production till the preparation and the final shoot of this film, every aspect has been very unique. We were shooting in the middle of the 2nd lockdown, and our director Viral Shah and everybody else in the team were isolated. Most of the work of this film happened on Zoom, and there were many challenges we faced in terms of getting the locations in the middle of lockdown, getting dates of the actors, and making sure that people were safe and not sick and they were COVID-free. Everything about this film was very challenging, but Viral is a very balanced director, and he was very clear about what he wanted. He and his whole team, which includes our DOP, Dhavalika, and everybody else, were on the same page as to how this film should look. Even the cast members, Ratna Bhataksha, Darshil Safari, Dharmendra Gohil, and Viraf Patel, were absolutely for the film, and everybody wanted to do something special with this film.

Sarika: How has this award for Kutch Express helped the regional cinema overall? How important was it for you to showcase this aspect of Indian culture?

Parthiv: We felt it was very important to establish the fact that there is so much art in Kutch. There is so much creativity and so much variety in Kutch. For example, the state has 16 weaves. Each weave is representative of a different tribe. And not many people know that 16 weaves come out of Kutch. We didn't want it to be a documentary on the art and culture of Kash, but that was woven with the story of Mungi. It's very important to have films like this that showcase the land and the culture of that land and at the same time entertain the audiences with strong performances and great direction.

Sarika: With movies like Kantara and Kutch Express winning the National Awards, how will it boost the regional industry?

Parthiv: There is so much beauty in culture. There's so much character in all these stories that come from the small regions that films like Kutch Express help to showcase it. Kantara also helped showcase the folk culture and the folklore of the specific region, which makes the stories very, very unique and gives them a flavor and a character different from the other stories.

Incredibly, Kantara and Kutch Express have been awarded the national awards. And we need more attention to the regional industry. We need more conversation around regional cinema. I don't want to call it regional cinema. I want to call it Indian cinema because all of it is part of India. There needs to be more OTT players that come to the fore and acquire regional content. So many OTT players shy away from taking Gujarati films. We really need to change that.

Sarika: What do you think sets Kutch Express apart from other films in the same genre, and what makes it a standout production?

Parthiv: The fact that we shot it like any international film would be shot, any Bollywood big production film would be shot. We did not think of it as a regional film. We approached it as a film and made the choices that needed to be made without any kind of compromise whatsoever. In that sense, if you see the film, the taking and the making of the film, it looks incredibly colorful and rich and very, very beautiful. So that's what sets Kutch Express apart.

Sarika: How does this National Award win impact your future projects and the kind of stories you want to tell through your production house?

Parthiv: This National Award does give a lot of prestige to our production house and gives us more faith from our investors and the people who support us in telling stories. But Mansi and I are artists; we have individual careers that are extremely busy, but we make time to make sure that we also produce quality content because we love our language, Gujarati, and we want more and more content to come out of this language. It is with that intention that we have started Soul Sutra, and that is why I think the National Award is just going to steamroll all our other projects, make everything more exciting, and give us more motivation to do better content.

Parthiv Gohil has sung for films including Devdas, Saawariya, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, and Kisaan. He is also a known face in Gujarati cinema for his hit songs Aasmani, Thai Jashe, and Soni Gujarati Ni.

He is also a producer and has backed the 2020 romantic movie Golkeri and also the award-winning Kutch Express in 2023, which won the National Film Award.