A Centenarian Hero Battles The Tough Screen Economy

November 9, 2021. A saffron-clad centenarian enters Rashtrapati Bhavan barefoot to accept the Padma Shri, the country’s fourth-highest civilian honour. Before accepting the award, the frail but tall man raises his hands in a gesture to bless the then-President, Ram Nath Kovind. The Head of State bows down to him in reverence. The nation was just meeting Nanda Prusty. But filmmaker-photographer Pranab Aich was long trailing the grassroots educator through the dust of Kantira, a village in Eastern Odisha.

The Class VII pass-out, who spent seven decades imparting free education through traditional open-air school (Chatasali in Odia), is now the subject of Aich’s hybrid documentary. After launching at the India Pavilion at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival as a part of Bharat Parv and doing rounds of the festival circuit, Nanda Master’nka Chatasali hit the big screens on December 12. It faced the cold economics of multiplex upon its release, which Aich attributes to screen war and underdeveloped taste buds of the audience for documentaries.

A working still from Nanda Master’nka Chatasali (Photo: Special arrangement)

"We began with nine screens, but right now I think we are left with five," Aich says. "The big films like Durandhar and Avatar: Fire and Ash are up, and they (exhibitors) are trying to throw off all other films. We had the budget for 25 screens, but the distributor couldn't buy them... now only if the ticket sales go up will we get our screens back."

While the film is creating "waves" in Odisha, the diaspora in metro cities, the very people craving that "pro-culture feeling" and village nostalgia are left searching for showtimes.

Nanda Master’nka Chatasali marks the production debut of Abhaya Pati, a journalist and educationist. He was moved by Nanda Sir's devotion to education while working on a story in 2020. With an aim to take this inspiring story beyond Odisha, he called Aich. The filming kickstarted in 2020 before the Padma Awards were announced.

Nanda Prusty, a Class VII pass-out spent seven decades imparting free education through traditional open-air school (Photo: Special arrangement)

Aich was initially hesitant. "For me, a documentary is all about heroes and an issue without a hero is boring stuff," he explains. Then he met Nanda Sir. "I was mesmerised by his simplicity, his honesty, and the warmth he had." The filmmaker dubs his first meeting with his century-old hero as "magical." After meeting him, it was impossible for Aich to say no to the project. The filmmaker says he "couldn’t stop thinking about the magnanimity behind the simple personality" that he had just met but had read about long back.

What started as a 40-minute festival piece soon took the shape of a feature-length project shot over two years. To keep the "soul of the film alive," Aich, who won the World Photography Award at Cannes in 2009, also donned the cinematographer's hat. The hybrid documentary shot on a Sony A7III captures Nanda Prusty indifferent to the lens, following his routine through the heavy Odisha monsoons and the biting winters to scorching summers.

The graph of the story took a drastic turn when Nanda Sir passed away a year into filming. Suddenly, the team was left with a powerful present but a missing past.

Nanda Master’nka Chatasali marks the production debut of Abhaya Pati, a journalist and educationist (Photo: Special arrangement)

"In poor village families, they do not archive pictures," Aich says. "I had only one photo of him with his wife from when he was 80. I discarded it because using one reference for 20 scenes looks awkward." This pushed him to adapt the docu-drama format and use narrations from the grandson, villagers, and local journalists to recreate Nanda Sir’s backstory. Aich also included a harrowing political riot where Nanda Sir's own former students trapped him in a room with "chilly smoke."

According to Aich, Nanda Prusty lived a storied life. His hour-and-a-half-long film touches upon many aspects of Nanda Prusty's life: the bright student, the actor, the sought-after soothsayer in his village, and the forever teacher. Although he was a brilliant student and bagged a teaching job in a forest area, his father did not let him take it. He then started a grocery business, but teaching was where his heart lay. Aside from teaching, theater was another passion he loved, though his wife did not approve. However, Nanda Prusty found his way to teach people irrespective of age. From senior citizens double his age to kids just learning their letters. He tried to introduce numbers and letters to everyone around him while keeping his love affair with theater alive. He left the theater after his self-respect and Odia pride were hurt during a play but continued teaching until his last.

The film won the Best Documentary award at the 15th Dada Saheb Film Festival and the Jharkhand International Film Festival 2025. Despite the acclaim, Aich grapples with the "unfinished" nature of the project due to Nanda Sir’s passing on December 7, 2021. He was 103.

"I originally thought I’d end it with him coming back from Delhi with the award to continue teaching. But he died within a month of being honoured. Now, the film ends with his Chatshali (school) closed. It’s heavy."

There is a haunting moment in the film where Nanda Sir, while in Delhi for the ceremony, says, "I want to live here for a month." Aich still doesn't know why he said it, but exactly a month later, he was gone.

Teaching aside, Nanda Prusty felt a strong calling to the stage (Photo: Special arrangement)

Aich is aware that his "honest story" faces an uphill battle on the international circuit, where he believes "anti-narratives work. "If you talk about the achievements of your nation, it often doesn’t work for them. They look for stories where the struggle is on and on. I knew it would be difficult, but I took the challenge."

As for the language barrier, Aich says he had clarity from the beginning. "The person speaks Odia. He can't speak Hindi. If I’m making a documentary, I must be authentic." The team is currently negotiating with OTT platforms for a wider release with dubbed versions.

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