After an hour’s wait, the moderator of the panel discussion, film critic Anupama Chopra finally arrived at the venue.
She was here to moderate a panel discussion on short films, organized by the Royal Stag Barrel Select Short Films. It also featured film personalities like Sumeet Vyas, Aman Dahiya, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Padmapriya, Somnath Pal, Ankoosh Bhatt and Puja Gupta.
The discussion was pegged on the films chosen to be showcased by the Royal Stag Barrel Select Short Films platform. The films were Camouflage by Aman Dahiya (starting Purab Kohli and Sumeet Vyas), Sparsh by Ankoosh Bhatt (starring Puja Gupta), Death of a father by Somnath Pal and Chaitanya Tamhane and Maya by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (starring Padmapriya).
“In the last five years, there has been a revolution in the short film ecosystem. Short films would always be made by those who wanted to tell a story, but didn’t have the money to do it. They would gather friends, borrow a camera and somehow manage to make a 10 to 15-minute film,” shared Sumeet, who has acted in Camouflage , a film which is a tribute to India’s defence personnel.
“In the last five years, the short film culture has taken a different shape. Audiences are looking at the medium seriously.
Short films are an exciting format to tell a story. There are some films that are only meant to be told in a certain duration. If they are extended or shortened, they will not have the same impact.”
The film, shared its maker Aman,was made in just a day with the original 14-minute cut, edited down to nine minutes.
“My association with short films began in the 1980s when I was still in school. The American Embassy used to show a lot of films. I found those short films hard-hitting and beautiful. They made me want to make films,” shared Aniruddha.
“The short film platform allows artistes to experiment without any baggage. All of us have many stories to tell, even if we just dig into our lives or our friends’ lives. It is satisfying to know that I have shared my story, regardless of whether it works. There is no stress here.”
Aniruddha’s film, Maya , is a love story about a boy whose love interest has no idea about his feelings.
He has conversations on the phone with her, without revealing his identity.
“What I love is the fact that the relationship among the team members while making a short film is more intimate. You are not aloof from the process of filmmaking but are an integral part. There is more labour of love,” said Padmapriya.
The list of selections this year also features an animated film, something new for the platform. Titled Death of a father, the film throws light into the way a young man deals with circumstances following his father’s demise.
“Animated films don’t really find a voice, they don’t make it as big as some Bollywood movies. I had specific reasons for wanting to make an animated film.
The first was, why not? We usually limit ourselves to a specific audience, we are not adventurous enough for the medium. I feel that because every frame is created from scratch, it is a lot more atmospheric than perhaps a live action film. I don’t want to draw comparisons. All I am saying is that every frame has been thought out, bringing to the audience’s notice that this movie is not just about the narrative but also the atmosphere around it,” Somnath, the writer and director of the film, pointed out.
“The third reason is that I can achieve a certain kind of a restraint in an animated film, in the narrative because where there is a live human face, even when it is expressionless, it is communicating a thousand things. A drawing limits that expressions, it allows the audience to focus on the moment in itself.”
