“ Obsession is one of the few facets of nature that can only be seen in man. And that, along with the fact that it stems from nothing more than a simple dreamlike thought, is what fascinated me. Experimenting primarily on myself, I decided to write ‘Kshay’ entirely from an obsession’s perspective. The kind of people I was writing about do exist only in the lower-middle class section of India’s economy, but their need for money can quite easily snowball into a breed of insanity that exists everywhere in this world.

Since we were going into filming with a two-man crew, very little money and no deadline, we had the option of getting as obsessive about making this film as our main character, Chhaya gets about the sculpture of Lakshmi. Mirroring her struggle to make the most out of the limited resources she had, we set strict constraints on various aspects of production and post-production. We opted for using only practical lighting and not a single extra bulb, no matter how dark and grainy the shot looked. We could’ve easily opted for a life-like digital markup of a 70-piece orchestra for the soundtrack, but instead stuck to a simple quartet and a harp. It got extremely difficult at times but it was honest and that was what mattered most.

When we finally left the all-consuming world of Kshay, four years had passed. Chances are, I’d probably never do something as self-absorbing as this ever again because it takes a whole lot more out of you than you’d originally signed up for. But hell, it was fascinating and it was fun, and that’s what making movies is all about.”

~ Karan Gour