After making his directorial debut with YRF, film-maker Atul Sabharwal has come up with a documentary that gives an insight into the history and trade of the footwear industry in Agra. He tells Divya Kaushik that the idea was a result of his personal quest to know more about his family business
Why would a film-maker get busy with a documentary after making his directorial debut with Yash Raj Films’ AurangzebIJ There’s an interesting personal story behind it. “After making Aurangzeb, which was like achieving one of the milestones in my life, I looked back at my journey and what came to my mind was that my father discouraged me from getting into our family shoe business. I found this very unusual. I wondered what my life would have been like if I would have followed his footsteps and continued with the family business. I also remember that in 2010, I saw my father standing in a Woodland showroom in Agra, looking at a certain item on the shelf and muttering, ‘so much has changed’. At that time, I did not know what had ‘changed’ though bulk trading in shoe material has always been my family business. There were many questions in my mind and, therefore, I decided to document what ‘used to be’ and what had ‘changed’ and the result through the film,” shares film-maker Atul Sabharwal.
His documentary, In Their Shoes, released in five cities through PVR’s Director’s Rare and is being talked about how it traces the origin of leather shoe trade in Agra, one of the prominent and best-known markets in shoe trade. This is one-of-its-kind film where Atul is not only associated as a producer-director with the project but also features in it as a son on a personal quest to learn about the legacy of his old family business. “I am tracing the journey of hand-made shoes through the artists in this profession. I navigated through the narrow alleys, crowded slums and giant export houses of Agra to explore certain answers through the interviews of footwear artisans, traders, manufacturers, exporters and government officials. Through their voices, this film pieces together the tale of the industry and the men who built it and sailed it through or got sunk with global events like India-Pakistan Partition, rise of the USSR, Solidarnosc movement of Poland, the collapse of Berlin Wall and the opening of trade economies. I always had that urge to tell the story of the shoe industry in Agra since I have been born and brought up there,” informs Atul
He also adds that this film completes a trilogy of sorts for him because all his work so far has been about a specific city and the trade that happens there. “Powder was about the trade of narcotics in Mumbai while Aurangzeb was set against land trade in Gurgaon. Now this documentary is the story of shoe trade, within the city of Agra. Besides, it is interesting for me that all my three projects are in different medium from each other — a TV show, a studio feature film and a documentary,” says Atul. The documentary starts with his father’s workspace and moves on to other traders, importers and craftsmen. It also looks at the role China has played in shaping the leather shoe industry and government policies. The film took over a year to finish, “while eight to nine months were only spent in editing and putting the film together.” Atul is working on a YRF project and says that he would love to write a mini series for the small screen “if something interesting comes up.”