Ayodhya-born filmmaker Gabriel Vats: I want to pass the cinema test as that’s wh

Filmmaker Gabriel Vats is looking forward to shooting his film in hometown Ayodhya later this year. An engineering final year dropout-turned-director, he was recently in Lucknow and visited his hometown too to scout for two films that he intends to shoot this year.
“The first one is RMCS (Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi) which I wanted to shoot in Lucknow but now, besides Delhi and Mumbai, we will shoot in Bhopal. However, we will surely shoot another film in Ayodhya as it’s set in my hometown and dating back to 1991,” says the 29-year-old director.
He is currently gearing up for his debut feature film that he hopes to hit the theatres in the next few months.
“We wanted to make a film in a few days, on a very tight budget, which could do wonders on the box office. With extensive planning, we managed to shoot Gauraiya Live in eight days. The budget is in control and now are looking for a theatrical release. I have good OTT offers but first I want to pass the cinema test as that’s what I had set to achieve. We shot the film with Omkar Das Manikpuri, Pankaj Jha and 600 local artistes.”
He has also co-written the film with Seema Saini which is about a poor girl trapped in a well and the rescue operation.
After his initial schooling in his hometown, he moved to Delhi and joined engineering course but dropped out in the final year. “My mother, who is a writer and a great Shri Ram bhakt, is my inspiration behind joining the film world. I came to Mumbai in 2012 and assisted in films Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara (2013), Bajirao Mastani (2015), Shivaai (2016) and October (2018),” he says.
He also directed a short film I Am Mr Mother (2015) in which he acted as well.
“RMCS will be a big budget film and we are in talks with Darshan Kumar and Anupriya Goenka for the film. More than the budget I believe it’s the content which matters. We have seen very small budget films doing wonders on the box office and I want to do that with theatrical experience,” he says, adding that he is also working on another film Kumbh that he intends to produce.