Updated July 26, 2017 13:20:47

Salt Bridge is a lot of firsts: It's the first Hindi-language Australian movie, it's writer-director Abhijit Deonath's first film, and its songs represent the first seven times he's made the Oscars shortlist.

The film, which opens on Thursday in five cities, tells the story of Indian migrants in Australia.

It was shot in Canberra, where Deonath has lived for a decade.

The scientist-turned public servant has long quietly dabbled in music — eight of his songs are in Salt Bridge and, on a lark, he submitted them to the Oscars last year.

To his surprise seven of them were shortlisted on a list of 77 songs in the original song category.

"Yes it was a big confidence booster," a smiling Deonath said.

Photo: The movie was filmed across two Canberra autumns. (Supplied)

For Deonath, the film was a labour of love, telling the story of an Indian migrant who forms a deep bond with a woman other than his wife — a relationship that causes waves in his close-knit Indian community.

"It's a movie mostly about relationships, but the kind of issues that happen in relationships because of the way migrant society operates," he said.

"I think it will mostly appeal to an Indian audience as they would relate to the characters and the experience of the movie, but at its core it's about the human experience, so any human could relate to it."

Film shot in and around Canberra

Salt Bridge is a film in the Indian mould.

It's not full-blown Bollywood, stuffed with dance sequences in incongruous locations, however it is infused with high emotion and melodrama.

The main character is played by Rajeev Khandewal, a small-screen actor who is a household name in India.

Photo: Salt Bridge was independently funded, but attracted international attention. (Supplied)

Deonath took out hefty personal loans to self-fund the film — however is confident he will recoup the outlay.

The movie was shot almost entirely in and around Canberra: At Lake Burley Griffin, the Kingston foreshore, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Telopea Park, Black Mountain Peninsula and the John Knight Memorial Park in Belconnen.

In particular, Deonath and his crew wanted to capture Canberra in its full blazing autumn glory, so crews filmed across two autumns, using drones to give a birds eye view.

"Canberra is such a fantastic place, logistically you can go from A to B in half an hour, so it's easy to move the whole set from one location to another," he said.

"At times, we did three or four locations in one day, which would be unthinkable in a big city like Sydney or Melbourne."

Plans for worldwide release

While Canberra is recognisable on screen, the crew was cautious to avoid iconic landmarks, such as Parliament House and the Telstra Tower, as the movie is set in the fictionalised town of Salt Bridge.

"When thinking about the title of this movie, I somehow got very attracted to scientific terms," he said.

"Salt bridge in electrochemistry defines a phenomenon where there is electricity flowing if there is a salt bridge but no chemicals mixing, unlike in normal batteries where chemicals mix and the circuit is complete.

"So I used this as a metaphor to my story, where there is definitely electricity flowing between the characters, but because of certain issues there is no chemical mixing happening."

Photo: Salt Bridge will open in Australia tomorrow. (Supplied: Salt Bridge)

For now, Salt Bridge has a limited release for a week in cinemas in five cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.

However Deonath said he had bigger plans to release it worldwide, particularly in centres where Indian films do well, such as the UK, US, Canada and the Middle East.

"I want to take it all over the world," he said.

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, film-movies, canberra-2600, australia, act

First posted July 26, 2017 13:17:48