The smiling faces of the little directors camouflage the eagerness and excitement which is brewing within. They are all excited to be a part of the fest where their respective movies will be screened and they get a feedback. Besides this, they are nervous about the competition where the little directors’ movies will compete at the fest. “It is a nice experience. We got to watch a lot of movies and the best part was visiting a different city without having to attend school,” says Nishkarsh Sachdeva from Kolkata. Nishkarsh has become good friends with Ananya Sen and Ajinkya Hurkerikar. And the three are always chatting and share honest opinion about each other’s movies.
Nishkarsh directed Our Bit with Syed Muztaba Ali and Shambu Biswas. Nishkarsh and his team’s film is about conservation. “We didn’t do big things. As children we can begin by saving food, water and electricity. That is what my film is about,” he says. And his contender, Ajinkya’s movie “is a strong one,” he smiles.
Ananya is cool about the competition. “It is an experience. I am loving it here and learning every moment of my stay here. There is so much to learn from directors and the movies which we have all seen. We have been hanging out together and as a group we are very impressed with Zerafa by an independent film maker.
Ajinkya isn’t too bothered about winning or losing; he says, “Let’s just enjoy the spirit and the fact that our work got selected. My movie is about superstitions and fear. It is titled The Trek and is 20 minutes long. I took two days to shoot it.”
Elsewhere in the same venue the group from Oakridge International School in the city is jubilant. A school project for their film making club earned them the invitation for the fest and the four young filmmakers feel like superstars. “We were all over the news and it was unbelievable. We have to thank our actors for the wonderful job. Not to forget our sir —Ramesh Goud — who did everything for us when it came to taking permissions and shooting at correct angles,” says Aheli Jana. Their movie is titled Temple Run, but has nothing to do with the Temple Run game on smart phones. “The film is about a treasure hunt near a temple. We enjoyed a lot shooting for the film. One of the directors has also acted and during his entry there was a lot of laughter when we screened the movie in our school. Akash Sriram Reddy is another director who played a villain in our movie,” says Antara Narayan.
Another member of the Oakridge team, Shruti Srinivasan says, “In our case, too many cooks didn’t spoil the broth because each of us had our own areas to work upon.”
Surely they deserve their share of applause.
