Short Filmmaker Talks!

Short films are the new viral. Everybody has access to OTT platforms. Creators create more short films, and viewers want and watch even more of them. This has become a fad, which doesn’t look to fade very soon. Short films have shown the film industry another way to blow up!

Conversations with short filmmakers make this interesting. Anand Varadarajan, Vishwakiran Nambi and Anugna are short filmmakers and brilliant at their work.

Just brew a cup of coffee and happy reading!

Mr Anand Varadaraj, Founder, BISFF

Anand Varadaraj is best known as the founder of the BISFF (Bangalore International Short Film Festival). The Bangalore International short film festival was initiated to create a platform for young and amateur filmmakers to screen their films and receive constructive feedback from professionals from the field. It was started in 2010 with just 40 submissions. This number rose to 3500+ in 2020. Today, it is one of the largest short film festivals in India and the only one to have an Oscar Accreditation program.

Vishwakiran Nambi, Independent Filmmaker, Winner, Karnataka State participant

Set in a traditional South Indian, 80s style kitchen, The Kitchen is a dance-short film depicting the role of women in society. The film has won the Karnataka state section of the BISFF 2021. Written and directed by Vishwakiran Nambi, he believes that "When we say cinema, it should

bring about change. Real social change. Cinema makers have always been very vocal about their sense of activism, what they want to do with cinema, what they want to say, what they want to change in the world. But now you can see them striking the chord with the people, with governments and communities and we will see good filmmakers doing that."

"It wasn't an actual kitchen we erected. It is in Bangalore itself. I wanted a functional kitchen. When I say 'functional kitchen', it would mean a kitchen that people still use every day. I looked for six to seven months for a kitchen like that in Hassan and Mangaluru. But the problem was that, even though I found the kitchen, they weren't big enough to shoot. Nobody builds a kitchen with 20 ft space for a camera to move around, right? So, the kitchens were never that big. That was a limitation. So we picked certain elements from these kitchens and we erected a set somewhere in Jalahalli."

Anugna, Former secretary, Reels Run Association, MCC

Anugna, a former secretary of the Reels Run Association at Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, prefers short films since they are easier to script and get actors. “It is overall easier to produce!” she says and laughs.

Throughout these conversations with short filmmakers, finance has been the biggest and most common challenge to all. It is necessary as an audience, we encourage short films and short filmmakers, as we do with large feature films.