02 August,2026 07:52 AM IST | Mumbai | Priyanka Sharma
(L-R) Paresh Rawal and Aditya Rawal in ‘Pastt Tense’
The joy of seeing one's film travel to an international festival never fades, regardless of how long one has been in the industry. Filmmaker Ananth Mahadevan affirmed that when mid-day caught up with him to discuss Pastt Tense, his upcoming feature that is set to have its world première at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM). "Once I started doing films like Red Alert: The War Within [2010], Staying Alive [2012], Gour Hari Dastaan [2015], all my films right up to Phule [2025] have been featured at international festivals. So now if it doesn't feature, I would be disappointed. But then, I wouldn't make a film that is not considered for global standards," he said.
A newspaper report sparked the idea for Pastt Tense. While the core story of a son searching for the biological mother who abandoned him at birth came from the report, the filmmaker said "everything else I developed on my own".
Making an intense drama right after a socially relevant biopic like Phule marks a departure, but Mahadevan said the decision was intentional because he doesn't like repeating himself. "I want to surprise myself first. It has nothing to do with the audience because [they] would probably lap it up. But my conscience will not allow it. I am the most stringent and uncompromising with myself. So, that's why [after] Phule, I shifted to Pastt Tense which is a complex film about social guilt and conscience. I felt I could dig deeper into the human psyche."
"The silence between their characters is explosive. Both have different approaches. Paresh Rawal is hungry for roles that would challenge him. There was a burst of spontaneity in him that surprised me. Aditya's eyes speak a lot. But the seriousness with which the father and son approach their roles and study their parts is similar"
