A video reveals the connection.

The 4-minute clip details the making of the film, “Where Hope Grows.” One of the producers, Milan Chakraborty, describes the choice of David DeSanctis, a young man from Louisville, Ky., to fill the central role as an affable grocery clerk named, “Produce.” Numerous actors born with Down syndrome auditioned, but DeSanctis “stood out,” Chakraborty says in the video. “I couldn’t imagine it being anyone else.”

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That was 2013.

Nearly two years later, the makers of “Where Hope Grows” — featuring a broken ex-major leaguer whose spirits get revived by his unlikely bond with Produce — are preparing for its nationwide release on May 15. Chakraborty and DeSanctis have become friends. The project that brought them together, Chakraborty said last week, “is not a film about Down syndrome. It’s a film about life, hope and faith, and what all that means when it seems like all hope is lost.”

Chakraborty, a 36-year-old who grew up in Terre Haute, learned from the experience, and from DeSanctis, whom Chakraborty said “steals the show.” It taught him much about people born with the genetic disorder, beyond its physical distinctions, such as delayed growth, facial characteristics and varying degrees of mental disabilities.

“People feel sorry for people with Down syndrome or treat it as, ‘Oh, that’s so precious,’” Chakraborty said in a telephone interview with the Tribune-Star on Tuesday, while traveling between screenings of the film in Florida. “But when you really engage someone with Down syndrome, you realize we are more alike than we are different.”

A funny moment as filming wrapped up, in late November 2013, epitomizes that realization. In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, DeSanctis and co-star Kristoffer Polaha, who plays the alcoholic ex-ballplayer Calvin Campbell, praise each other for changing the other’s life. Then DeSanctis humorously needles Chakraborty, who is standing close by, telling the Courier-Journal, “Milan … I think that I’m the one who is really changing his life around. I think Milan Chakraborty needs a life adjustment.”

Actually, Chakraborty experienced a turning point more than a decade earlier, steering him toward his current niche as a film producer specializing in coordinating the business side of making a movie — a vocation he loves. The 1996 Terre Haute South Vigo High School graduate worked as a certified public accountant after earning his degree in 2000 from the College of William & Mary. A year later, two friends died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His perspective on a career and life began to shift.

He remembered dreams of youth, when kids aspire to be astronauts or baseball players. “It seems like you get to a certain age when you stop thinking like that,” he said, “and after a few things, I decided I needed to start thinking like that again.” Eventually, Chakraborty concluded, “This whole thing of, ‘You work till you’re 65 then you retire,’ is a false bill of goods. I realized we’re fortunate for every day we have on this earth, and we have to try to be happy.”

In the intervening years, “I caught this bug” for film producing, which led to his job with Attic Light Films. Now, he criss-crosses the country, trekking from his home, Los Angeles, to New York, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Louisville throughout the “Where Hope Grows” project. Busy as he is, the non-8-to-5 role allowed Chakraborty to spend quality time with his father before his passing in December 2013.

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“It works for me,” he said.

Lost opportunity for Indiana

The journeys to Louisville were a bit of a surprise. Chakraborty and Jose Pablo “Joey” Cantillo — a feature movie and television actor, and fellow Terre Haute South graduate also living in California — wanted to film “Where Hope Grows” in their hometown, Terre Haute and teamed with Steve Bagheri and Simran Singh as producers. The script by Chris Dowling, the writer and director, perfectly fit the small town. Then they learned that Indiana had eliminated its tax incentives for on-location film productions. With investors lined up to support the movie, Chakraborty had no choice but to look elsewhere.

“Without the tax credit, being a former CPA, how could I put investors’ total investment at risk?” he said.

Indeed, “Where Hope Grows” isn’t the only film affected by Indiana’s change. “The Judge,” starring Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr., and “The Fault in Our Stars” are set in Indiana, but were filmed elsewhere because of tax incentives offered by other states, Chakraborty emphasized. All of Indiana’s neighbor states, including Kentucky, offer tax incentives of 20 percent or higher.

The state of Kentucky, Louisville and its mayor, Greg Fischer, worked to bring “Where Hope Grows” to that city on the Ohio River. Kentucky made Chakraborty an honorary Kentucky Colonel this year, and he attended the Kentucky Derby as the mayor’s guest in 2014. “I’m grateful of everything Louisville has done,” Chakraborty said, “but this was supposed to be a homecoming film,” referring to Terre Haute.

The end result appears strong, nonetheless. Its Facebook page has 457,189 likes. The movie by Godspeed Pictures won the Audience Choice Award at the Heartland Film Festival and made the official lineup at the Dallas and Kansas City film festivals. “Where Hope Grows” has also drawn support from advocacy groups for people with disabilities and faith-based organizations, as well as charities led by pro sports notables such as Albert Puhols, Kurt Warner and Washington Capitals Coach Barry Trotz.

Many ‘relatable themes’

Average people seem touched by the film, too, after viewing it in screenings around the country. One father of a youngster with Down syndrome told Chakraborty, “We’re scared. We don’t know what his future is going to be like, but this film gives us hope.” Such reactions “just floored me,” Chakraborty said.

Among those attending a screening in Florida were longtime Terre Hauteans Tom and Betty Clary, now living in Orlando. That audience, Betty said, broke out in applause “at so many different parts of the movie.” Betty, a veteran youth tennis instructor in Terre Haute, has long known Chakraborty and Cantillo, and said she’s proud of their collaboration. “It took my heart places I’ve never been before,” she said.

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“It has a lot of relatable themes,” Betty added, “such as despair, relationships between parents and a teenage child, stereotypes of people with disabilities, Christianity and alcoholism.”

In the movie, DeSanctis’ character, Produce, lifts the discarded baseball star, Calvin, out of an emotional tailspin. His career with the Detroit Tigers unraveled after a series of panic attacks at the plate. Calvin winds up back in his hometown, Louisville, trying to drink away his disappointment while raising a 17-year-old daughter. He encounters the ever-pleasant Produce at a supermarket.

“This kid, Produce, is the one character throughout the whole film that seems to have his whole life actually together — the one that you’d think would be the least likely to really always be happy,” Cantillo explained in a 2014 interview with the Tribune-Star. “He’s so independent and self-reliant and has this sage wisdom at times.”

The movie “shatters stereotypes about Down syndrome,” Cantillo said in a follow-up conversation last week. “This movie is not about a Down syndrome character but a character who happens to have Down syndrome. And the character of Produce is not defined by it, but rather by his intuitive, brave and compelling pursuit of his object — to aid a friend in need.”

Theater-goers feel Produce’s impact on Calvin and others around them, Chakraborty said.

“It forces the audience to re-evaluate certain things in their own lives,” he said. Chakraborty himself, along with fellow cast and production staffers, have become advocates for folks with Down syndrome and disabilities.

The themes behind “Where Hope Grows” fit Chakraborty’s own background as a film fan. “Growing up in Terre Haute, my favorite movies are still ‘Hoosiers’ and ‘Rudy,’ where the underdog overcomes in society.” Chakraborty is proud of all five of the films he’s helped produce so far, especially the latest. He’d like to see it shown in theaters in Terre Haute, which ironically isn’t among the numerous Indiana cities scheduled for the opening May 15. As of Thursday, the cities with scheduled theater showings were Carmel, Noblesville, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Plainfield, Portage, Schererville, Fort Wayne and Evansville.

“I really hope Milan and I can find a way to bring our special film home and share with our friends and family,” Cantillo said Thursday. “I am very proud to be a part of this project.”

Getting a local showing may require a civic organization, business or church to sponsor a block of tickets, Chakraborty suggested.

“I believe in Terre Haute, and other places, there’s an audience yearning for a film like this,” Chakraborty said.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or [email protected].

Source: https://t-tees.com
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