Development After the release of his debut directorial film
Court in April 2015,
Chaitanya Tamhane worked through an extensive research to write a script based on
Indian classical music in September 2015. Around March 2016, he started the writing works of the project which took more than 18 months to complete, as Chaitanya stated that "the first page of the script, was very difficult to crack. It took me 22 months to complete the first page and within the next two months, the entire script was completed". He did not take much time to rewrite the script as Chaitanya stated that his first draft was also the final draft of the script. As a part of the research work, Chaitanya travelled to various cities including
Delhi,
Kolkata (
ITC Sangeet Research Academy),
Varanasi,
Pune and
Ahmedabad. In an interview with
The New Indian Express, Tamhane stated that "
The Disciple is set in the world of classical music but it is not about musicians who draw sold-out concerts in big auditoriums, It is about musicians who are on the fringes and are a part of the subculture in Bombay." During the period of writing, Chaitanya was guided by
Alfonso Cuaron whom he met during the 2016-2017 edition of the
Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative. Chaitanya stated that "Cuaron had read the script and saw the editing work right up to the finished film".
Writing In Baradwaj Rangan's interview with
Film Companion, Tamhane added that the essential conflict in
The Disciple comes from
Grey Elephants — the play he made with
Vivek Gomber. He further added that "I fell in love with the theatre field because of all these stories, and secrets, this lost, ancient knowledge, and this complex, intimidating genre of music with roots in religion and spirituality. All of this collectively fascinated me. I started attending lots of classical concerts, and I travelled to places like Kolkata, Varanasi, Delhi, and even Mumbai has a really vibrant scene of Indian classical music. I began interviewing musicians. Most of the story and characters began to emerge from my part of the research work." In a 2020 interview for
Scroll.in, Tamhane added that
The Disciple is made with "an amalgamation of insights" which he gained during the film's research, and also becoming his personal story, stating that "Though cinema is a much younger medium, technology booming in the 21st century, are issues relevant to Indian classical music as well". He added that many things in Indian classical music are no longer relevant or true, as the
guru-shishya parampara. [student-teacher tradition]. He stated that
The Disciple may bring in two worlds, which is one being the Hindustani music and the other being the customary traditions which is not seen in modern times. For the cinematography Tamhane roped in Michael Sobocinski from Poland after Cuaron's suggestion. While he wanted this film to be "romantic", "textured" and subjective", which is starkly different from Court, he could not find an appropriate cinematographer for the script, so he insisted Cuaron to do so. Cuaron reached out his norm cinematographer
Emmanuel Lubezki, for this, who recommended Michael's name. Although he shot few commercials in India, Michael spent few months in the country to understand the subject of the film.
Visual effects Tamhane's mentor Alfonso Cuaron worked on the use of
visual effects in the film, he also insisted the correct use of VFX in a way that it "becomes completely invisible to the narrative and not use it in the more obvious", which it works towards enhancing the storytelling. Cuaron is known for the accurate use of visual effects in the film and during the work for
Roma, he noticed how much of VFX is included into two of its scenes - the one being the opening scene and another key scene which takes place at the beach. He added that the VFX is "insidious", which plays an "invisible part in the film". Cuaron also worked in the
Dolby Atmos mixing of the
background score. Tamhane was present at the sound mixing of
Roma, and spent time with the engineers who trained him in using the tool more efficiently, which played a key part in the film's script
. == Release ==