‘Osho’s discourses can cure any depressed person in the world’, says Ritesh S Kumar
The word ‘Love’ was made fashionable by a ‘sex guru’ Osho Rajneesh. Also known as indian godman and/or Acharya Rajneesh he built kind of an National and international empire teaching the world about ‘Love’. A movie is in the making on his life appropriately named ‘Secrets of Love’ which is being directed by Ritesh S Kumar. Ritesh has earlier directed a feature film ‘Mridang’ which is readying for release this year. He intends to capture the life and times of Osho Rajneesh which are still unexplored. He loves meditation and says, ‘Osho’s discourses can cure any depressed person in the world, I can vouch for that.’
Acharya Rajneesh emphasised the importance of meditation, love, celebrating life, discarding social taboos around the word sex, nudist culture and free sex. Due to his open attitude towards sexuality, he was considered the most controversial ‘guru’ of all times. But in the film Ritesh wants to reveal the unknown side of Osho Rajneesh to the world. ‘I had joined Osho group for meditation and got hooked on his philosophy. Osho has designed 106 types of meditations. It helps you to calm your mind and lets you accept you as yourself. As per Osho’s ideology, Love is the most used and abused word of all times. Actually love has different dimensions and it has three levels to it. First bring falling in love, then comes being in love and finally staying in love. Osho always questioned that when we are born out of sex then why we should be ashamed of sex? It’s, actually a biological pattern, which god has created’, said Ritesh S Kumar while explaining about the thought process which inclined him to venture into direction of ‘Secret of Love’.
Born in Bihar where unemployment was on a higher note, Ritesh decided to explore something else that everybody else was following. Like every Indian he too is a movie buff right from the younger days and decided to make a career in multi media. As the scope out there was limited he moved bag and baggage to Mumbai where he started working with Mac and excelled in Graphics. One thing led to another where while working as graphics designer in the post production he ventured into editing. After mastering editing he tested his directorial prowess with directing a few short films. The appreciation for the short films propelled him take up a feature film direction and he directed ‘Mridang’ which is ready for release and soon will hit screens.
In ‘Secret of Love’ actor-politician Ravi Kishan is playing the titular role of Acharya Rajneesh. When enquired about his selection for the part, Ritesh said, ‘We did consider a lot of names but zeroed in on Ravi Kishan because his and Osho’s eyes has immense similarities. We started shooting in Benaras and other places and the corona virus inflicted lockdown was a dampener. After lifting of it we completed the shoot and the film is into post production. We intend to release it by May this year.’
Ritesh S Kumar is an expert in visual effects and he’s a noted Di Colorist. His knowledge of VFX helped shoot scenes accordingly in this film. He has worked hard on this subject and has been reading and researching on Osho literature for 6-7 years. He insists that though words Osho and Sex go hand in hand he has taken utmost care not to shoot any titillating scenes. Also the lead actor Ravi Kishan too was averse to it as he being a politician didn’t want to jeopardise his or his party’s reputation because in today’s times a lot of objections are raised on Biopics.
Ritesh S Kumar is busy directing a web series for MX Player titled ‘Bullet-Pen’ which showcases the journey of a man who used to write and how he gets entangled in crime. So it’s a journey from Pen to Bullet. Another web project is in the pipeline and Ritesh says, ‘I do not plan too far as initially it was getting work was the priority to survive. I have self learnt things and happy with the progress of my career.’