New-age filmmakers take shortcut to big screen

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Short films have always been the best format for amateur filmmakers to test the waters. However, they have remained confined to film festivals. But short films are now gradually finding space on the big screen.

Earlier in the year Bombay Talkies — a compilation of four short films made by four of the most admired filmmakers of the recent time, celebrating the 100 years of Indian cinema — was released, and more recently Shorts — a compilation of five films by young filmmakers — is being promoted by Anurag Kashyap.
We are still to see the response to Shorts that has been released at select theatres in India, but the people involved with short films are optimistic and confident of a bright future.
Cyrus Dastur, who has been organising the short film festival, Shamiana, since last five years, admits that the culture of making as well as watching short films has evolved in recent time. He thinks that in India, accepting a new idea is very difficult. “World over, people like to watch short films more than full-length feature. It’s a statistically proven fact. But we haven’t embraced that idea yet,” he says.
But the short film scene is getting more exciting by the day, believes Cyrus, who has seen a better response from audience for his recent Shamiana fests. “The number of participants and the audience has surprisingly increased,” he says. However, he thinks that it is just the starting phase of short films getting popular. “After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he quips.
It is usually the young/amateur filmmakers who dabble in short films. “It’s the best way to hone your skills in filmmaking,” remarks Anubhuti Kashyap, whose short film Moi Marjaani became a rage on the Internet recently. Anubhuti, who is the younger sister of filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, could have easily made a feature film, but she chose to be introduced by a short film because she thinks short films make a great stepping stone and is a good way to show one’s skills. “But I don’t see short films becoming very popular very soon in India. People here still haven’t accepted that a film can be 20-minutes long,” she says and adds the Internet generation, however, is hooked on to short films and is making it popular.
“The acceptance of short films by the younger audience is creating a space for it to co-exist with feature films,” says Ankur Kapoor, who has participated in the short filmmaking competition, The 48-Hour Film Project, for three consecutive years and won accolades for his film Pen Chor. He says the major problem lies in the mindset of the mainstream audience who are still to come of age.
“They are still to realise that a short film can move them as much as a feature film if it has good content,” he remarks and adds that even the film industry needs to grow and give a chance to such films. “One off cases like Anurag Kashyap’s is not going to bring a bigger change, though it will add to the change process, as the names of younger filmmakers attached with the bigger ones will give their work more visibility,” he says.
Madhvi Bhatt, a regular participant at the Shamiana fest, who has won the FrameFlixx Award for her 12-minute film, Deathal, says that the most tricky part is to take the film to the right audience. “We just have a few festivals that give us space. Otherwise, our films remain confined to select audiences. With big filmmakers coming forward to promote short films, I am hopeful of shorts having a better future,” she says.