Flashback to 1998.  I wrote the story for what has finally become the film “When Harry Tries to Marry” due in theaters today.

The story is about a 22-year-old college student who actually wants to get married right after he graduates through an old-fashioned arranged marriage. His parents had a failed “love” marriage, so Harry decides that he’d rather play it safe and simply follow tradition, where there is little risk of heartbreak or divorce.

Ralph Stein, my writing partner on the project, and I finished several drafts and started sending out the script to screen writing competitions and we were lucky that we started getting great feedback immediately.  We placed well across the board and won some awards.  I also got a great mentor in Leon Williams, who is a judge at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowship.  We didn’t win the fellowship but Leon thought it was one of the best scripts he’d read in a long time and started introducing me to people at major agencies.  The notes we started getting as the script floated around town basically said “who’s going to play Harry, and who’s going to direct?”

Then life got in the way of making the film.

Jump cut to 2004.  I was fortunate to be accepted to the Sundance Producer’s Conference with the project.  But Hollywood’s “Independent” Siamese twin said “oh, you should go get some Bollywood star to be Harry so you have ‘built in’ audience.”  I then went to Mumbai, where the Bollywood octopus said “make the film in Hindi” or go back to Hollywood since this is an “American” film in English.

So we were stuck.  How do we get financing for a project that has an Indian leading man in a cross-cultural (mainstream) romantic comedy with a first-time director (that would be me) for a general audience?  The project came together and fell apart a few times as we tried to marry both Hollywood and Bollywood but each industry has its own mindset, which we couldn’t really break.

Again, more life stuff got in the way.

Jump cut to 2009.  I had been working in the media space for a decade by now running a vertically integrated media/entertainment/communications firm, and had accumulated a wealth of experience, but the burning desire to be a screenwriter and filmmaker was killing me.

It was just a question of time.  Finally.  On my birthday, January 8, 2009 as I turned 34, I made a promise to myself that I’d make the film by the time I turn 35 – “come what may” – or I’d never be able to look myself in the mirror.

I proceeded to quit my job, cope with the sudden passing of my father, and put together a team of amazing people with whom to collaborate on the film.

Oh.  Wait.  We had no money to make the movie.

My producing partner Sheetal Vyas and co-producers Bhushan Thakkar and Ralph Stein and I decided to raise the money by doing staged readings in small theaters in NYC.  We converted the film script into a stage play of sorts, and invited investors to “see the movie” enacted.  That worked.  We immediately started raising money but it took six months to piece all of it together.

Dissolve to: October, 2009, we started to film at various locations in NYC, and particularly at PACE University, which became sort of a home-base for the film’s college setting.  We also filmed in my ancestral region, Kutch, India.

We wrapped in the second week of December, 2009.  I kept my promise to myself.  I made the film before I turned 35.

Five months of post-production and then…  The (almost kinda) four letter word.  DISTRIBUTION.  My guess is that this is the part of the process, which every filmmaker hates.

Distribution should be simpler: Make a film, show it at festivals (which we did), and if it’s half decent, voila, red carpets should start rolling.  But it’s never that simple.

Thankfully, we filmmakers now live in the day and age of DIY, thanks to our brethren in the music business.

We were mentally prepared from the get go that distributing a romantic-comedy for the mainstream market with an Indian leading man would be a challenge.  So like everything, come what may, we would do it ourselves and hire the best professionals in the business to help us execute our vision.

In January 2011, we started our own distribution company (108 Pics), raised more money, and decided to bring Harry’s story to “real theaters” (as if there are fake theaters) with the hope that audiences will want to discover a film that is cross-cultural, heartwarming and filled with fresh talent.

We are marketing the film with traditional television ads, trailers in theaters, print ads, publicity, and a large online push for national presence.  Our marketing tie-ins with Amway, XS, Crisp, Jill Anderson, and Pace University have given us an added boost in visibility and credibility.

Oh, and we also released a soundtrack available where all music is sold – digitally!

My hope is that audiences will discover and embrace our film.

And with a little luck at the box office, I’ll get to make more films in years to come.  TYU.  (Thank you universe.)

Note: When Harry Tries to Marry recently won Best Film (Audience Award), Best Crossover Film, and Best New Talent (Rahul Rai) at the London Asian Film Festival, March 2011.  For more information and to see the trailer go here.