Colourful contests galore

Gautham Menon's film workshop a huge hit

CREATIVE STREAK: A team at the face painting competition, at Techofes of the CEG, Anna University, in Chennai on Thursday. Photo: M. Karunakaran

The green grass, yellow sun, blue water, white-blue sky, all the elements fell in place as Anu Vishnu gently used the brush on the face of Vaishnavy Sathasivam. “I drew a butterfly amid the natural settings to highlight the diverse flora and fauna,” said Anu, even as the myriad acrylic colours became prominent on the face of her collegemate.

Joining the two from M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women were several other teams, in the face painting competition on the theme flora and fauna organised as part of the inter-college cultural fest ‘Techofes 2011' of the College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University.

Enthusiastic participants

It was not a packed event, but had enthusiastic participants who could bring characters alive on a person's face. A colourful butterfly, ferocious lion and fierce tiger among others took shape within the stipulated one and a half hours.

While water colours were the favourite medium of the participants, Stanley Verghese of Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering opted to use ball-point pen for the outline and marker pens to colour. “It is not easy to erase it off, but it is different from what others are doing,” he said.

A few blocks away, student volunteers were doing their best to ensure that the crowd does not go berserk during actor Sameera Reddy's programme.

During the brief interaction, she fielded questions ranging from “when you will marry”, “who is your favourite actor” to “what's your mobile number.”

Ms. Sameera Reddy had answers for all of them. She even shook a leg for a few seconds to please hardcore fans.

Crowd-puller

Director Gautham Menon's workshop that followed was equally a crowd-puller despite being a ticketed event.

Mr. Menon held an interactive session answering queries that ranged from film technicalities to his journey as a filmmaker. What are the qualities you look in an assistant director dominated the question from students? This was followed by a request to work with him, to which Mr. Menon asked them to meet him after their graduation. “Communication skills are essential when you approach an actor to present your script,” he said.

The juke box, where one could place a request for a song to be played, kept most visitors to the campus humming the lyrics and pepping up the mood.

The Hindu is the media partner for Techofes 2011.