Age is only a number and it isn’t tough to guess that aspect about Rajendra Vinod, 24 now, who’s the man behind the short film Change that has sealed a slot at the Guinness Book of World Records, this year on its accomplishment of being dubbed in the most number of languages (English, French, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese and Bengali-11) under the “Most Translated (dubbed) Short Film " category. “Officially awesome,” the tagline reads in his certificate and the acknowledgement’s embracing him after a lot of struggle.
“The filmmaking commenced in early February last year and we’d released the English version within a month’s time. Later, my team, including friends mostly, ten of them, all non-professionals at Aarvi Films, a banner that I floated dedicated nearly seven months for the dubbing,” he says.
The workload was a little beyond what they'd expected, but were determined to give it a global reach and fine-tuned their output till July this year. “It’s a psychological subject that I took up. The seven-minute film talks about the daily routine of every individual undergoing a change, also stressing about a range of issues from missing the daily alarm in the morning to work pressures and the moments of solitude he spends in a park.
The point that I stressed is about change and monotony being two sides of the same coin,” the owner of five-degrees including a bachelors in technology and sciences (psychology) besides post-graduation in journalism, multimedia and applied psychology media, speaks with a sense of gratification.
How did the thought of going multi-lingual and ensuring its authenticity came about? “Short filmmakers enjoy unparalleled freedom with the subjects, treatment that feature film directors don’t. I’ve had friends from various cultural and language backgrounds from my educational stint helping me pull this off,” Vinod remarks.
Directing nine films to date in two years, (seven short films, one advertisement and one documentary) most of his works bear a social inclination and that’s something he’s borrowed a lot from his personal life. “My parents are barely educated and under difficult circumstances, my sister was married at 13. Since then, I’d spent a lonely life and had to undergo much turbulence in terms of my health to become what I’m today. That’s where all the innate philosophy in my outcomes comes from,” he, also directing one women-oriented short film Arani in Malayalam states.
As he’s grown as a storyteller, the emphasis on number did slow down and his statistic of working only on two films from the past 20 months says it all. His other documentary on Lepakshi, registering its presence at the Indian Book of Records for a similar recognition (dubbed into 16 languages) is on the brink of earning global acclaim too and as we push him to talk more about it, he is a little superstitious. However, he says that may be his first and last attempt at making a documentary.
Given he thinks beyond his confines, it isn’t surprising to see him earn more international recognition, 12 awards in several film festivals than on the national front with about two of them including one at the National Student Film Awards organised last year.
The funding remains an issue with most of the short-film makers but not Vinod. “Surprisingly, I’m sparing when it comes to my resources and have hardly spent a lakh to make all of my films put together. Moreover with the global reach I’ve attained now, I suppose that should no more be an issue.”
Shifting between his hometown Hindupur and Bangalore to wrap his work, the mediocrity in the short-film industry hasn’t somehow got to him. “It’s because of my surroundings that I’ve come up with these themes. The scene in Hyderabad has more people working around crime capers and love stories. I would like to experiment with them in the times to come,” he clarifies.
As we hint him, if his impressive work in this arena is all groundwork towards a grand launchpad in feature films, he isn’t in denial mode at all. “I would ideally want to work on six more short films and set things straight for my full-fledged feature film two years from now.” He, now fulfilling his academic commitments, agrees his need move beyond inspirations from his personal life and dabble with fiction more.
