Seasoned casting director Rohan Mapuskar had clear reasons for picking 1999 for the events explored in his debut feature. April May 99 is set in the year that marked the end of the 1990s and heralded the new millennium.
“I wanted to show the transformation between the decades, the sense of what it was like to live in pre-digital times,” Mapuskar told Scroll. “There was barely anything like video games. The village was still a village, unlike now.”
Mapuskar’s film unfolds in Shrivardhan in Maharashtra’s Raigad district. In this verdant town, where traditional houses haven’t given way to concrete structures and cellphones haven’t yet made their presence felt, three 14-year-old friends eagerly look forward to the summer vacation. Krishna, Siddhesh and Prasad know how they want to spend their holiday, but they are forced to alter their plans to accommodate Jaie, who is visiting from Pune.
The Marathi film will be released with English subtitles on May 16 in cinemas. Mapuskar’s assured first feature is a charming look at friendship that doubles up as a nostalgia trip for school breaks spent on lazing around, cycling and shooting the breeze.
The boys are annoyed by Jaie’s presence in their lives but intrigued by her too. Yet, their dynamic is largely non-sexual – which was intentional.
“I didn’t want to go in the direction of sexual desire – I myself knew nothing about sexual matters until I was 16 or so,” Mapuskar said. “I wanted to focus on the innocence and purity of the characters.”
Mapuskar’s own formative years in Shrivardhan and his experiences with his school friends found their way into the film. “While the script isn’t entirely autobiographical, you do tend to get inspired by people you know,” the 42-year-old filmmaker said. “The names of the boys are based on my friends. There is a bit of me in Krishna.”
He was 15 in 1999 – a year older than his characters. Shrivardhan hasn’t been the same since he left the place for Mumbai in 2005, but a great deal remains unchanged too, he observed.
“There are fewer houses with tiled roofs, and the plantations have become smaller,” Mapuskar said. “The original jungle has shrink, while the concrete jungle has increased. What I wanted to capture was Shrivardhan’s inherent charm, its value system, the memories associated with it.”
The film, written by Mapuskar along with Bimal Oberoi and Kunal Pawar, took four years to be developed. “If I hadn’t taken this much effort or rushed the script, it wouldn’t have felt real,” Mapuskar said. “If you put your real life into your writing, your writing appears more life-like too. You have to give your 100 per cent to the screenplay.”
April May 99 was shot in 2024 almost exactly as it had been written. Mapuskar attributes his discipline to his previous experience as a casting director with several filmmakers, among them his own cousin Rajesh Mapuskar, Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani.
“There are no deleted scenes in the film – because I had worked with so many filmmakers, I knew the value of keeping the writing tight,” Mapuskar said. “The narration was timed too. The more precise your writing, the clearer you are and the fewer problems you have during the shoot.”
The teenagers who play the three boys and girl were selected on the basis of their ability to deliver natural, believable performances. Aaryan Menghji plays Krishna, Shreyas Thorat is Prasad and Manthan Kanekar is Siddesh. All of them have had roles in films or TV shows.
Sajiri Joshi, who portrays Jaie, was initially cast by Mapuskar in a project that didn’t take off. He says he wrote Jaie especially for Joshi, who had the beauty and spark to carry off the part.
“The main brief was that the acting had to be completely realistic,” Mapuskar said. “I wanted actors, rather than known faces.”
