Filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan was successful in delivering a story Masaan which connected to the audience wholly in 2015. During a conversation with IMDb India, filmmaker Neeraj reminisced the moment wherein in received an email from director Martin Scorsese who supposedly praised his feature which was interestingly a debut.
Ghaywan also mentioned the Melita Toscan du Plantier who happens to be the producer of Scorsese showed him Masaan. “My producer Melita Toscan du Plantier had shown Masaan to Martin Scorsese. That sentence still feels unreal to me,” he said. Even though Ghaywan was not present at the screening that Scorsese attended, he was delighted that the Goodfellas director connected with the film’s characters. “Him watching for those hours, connecting with Devi, Deepak and Shalu, laughing with them, falling in love with them and even getting emotional for them, that just made a very strange, surreal connection that I found with him even when I was not there,” he mentioned.
Martin Scorsese note to Neeraj read, “I was finally able to screen your film Masaan, and wanted to congratulate you on a powerful debut feature. Beautifully made, subtly woven and ultimately very moving. Thank you for sharing it with me. All my best, Marty.”
Ghaywan mentioned it as a life changing experience and said, “And then to read his email, this lovely note that he had sent. It just felt like one of those really life changing experiences as they say. It was like almost, you wish that slyly this had gone on your epitaph, but not for real. It was simply magical.”