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No kidding, this is cinema in the making
By K. Kannan
NEW DELHI, DEC. 8. Aditya, a student of Delhi Public School, R.K.Puram, imagines he has AIDS. He becomes paranoid with each passing day until he decides to ferret out all information about the deadly disease himself. And then the suspense breaks....
Scripted by Delhi school children after being trained in the art of film-making this past month by Bollywood bigwigs like Mahesh Bhatt, Anupam Kher, Mahesh Manjrekar, Suneil Shetty, Gulshan Grover, Tanuja Chandra and Pooja Bhatt, this storyline is now taking the shape of a film tentatively titled ``Mujhse Dosti Karoge?''.
``The docu-drama is an attempt to break the silence on HIV/AIDS among adolescents,'' says Mr. Ajay Kanchan, Communication Officer for HIV/AIDS at UNICEF, which is sponsoring this venture. Shooting of the film is now under way at DPS, R.K. Puram.
This ``communication for behavioural change'' project is being executed under the guidance of Mr. Mahesh Bhatt. ``For long, adults have been dictating what children should and should not do,'' says the much talked about film-maker. ``Kanchan and I have made three documentaries together including `The Calamity that Was' on Orissa's super-cyclone and we decided we should now let children make their own documentary.''
Mailers went out to many Delhi schools this past October inviting children to be part of the project. Twenty-one students from six schools -- DPS, R.K.Puram; Apeejay, Sheikh Sarai; Carmel Convent; DPS, Mathura Road; and two Government schools -- were finally selected.
To be sure, many of them were initially sceptical about the project. Says Suraj of Class XI at DPS, R.K.Puram: ``Initially I was very excited about meeting the Bollywood stars. My entire outlook, however, changed after I met an HIV-positive person.'' Chips in Avantika of Class IX at Apeejay, ``My Vice-Principal told me it was a golden opportunity and I should not let it go. And it has indeed been an enlightening experience.''
While 60 per cent of the filming is over in Delhi, similar projects are under way in Mumbai and Kohima. All three films when complete will be entered at various national and international film festivals.
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