When Siva Kumar, Syam Tekkem and R. Nagabhushan Rao met a few months back, they had no idea that their favourite pastime — discussing cinema — would suddenly lead to a decision to make a short film together.
Over the next few months, the rookie filmmakers, along with like-minded friends, completed their short film titled ‘I am Money”, which made its way to the first list of nominated films in the ‘Short Film Competition’ category for the 15 th Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF)- 2023, scheduled to be held in Jaipur from January 6 to 10.
“It took some time for the news to sink in,” says Mr. Siva Kumar, writer and director of the 13-minute long short film that tries to portray the myriad hues of money and how, as the adage goes, money makes the world go round.
A lecturer at the Government Polytechnic College in Gannavaram, Mr. Siva Kumar, along with friends Mr. Syam, a private businessman and Mr. Nagabhushan Rao, principal of a private college, collaborated with some close friends who share a common interest in films. “All of us are scattered in different places but we are bound by a common love of cinema. Meeting up just to have fun was not seen as a reason enough and so we planned to do something collectively that would help us spend time together,” says Mr. Siva Kumar.
Explaining how the rookie filmmakers took the plunge, he says what was initially considered for a WhatsApp status led to deeper thoughts that were penned down. “That’s when we realised that a short film on these lines would be worth giving a shot,” he says.
After struggling to find actors for the different roles, the friends decided to do the roles themselves. Identifying locations and keeping pace with the planned timelines was yet another difficult situation given the fact that all of them were employees dividing their time between their workplace and the project locations.
“It was interesting to be actually doing a serious job of what we had been discussing endlessly for years,” says Mr. Syam, the director of photography for the short film.
The elated team members are unanimous in their view that films are the highest form of art. “A film may offer brilliant cinematography, or excellent choreography, awe-inspiring dialogues, amazing special effects, or all of it. There has to be some element that appeals to your senses,” they concur.
The short film was also screened at the Pune Short Film Festival this year and was also selected for screening at the Life-Off Global Network Sessions, 2022.
The selections at JIFF were made by 38 jury members from 18 countries. Of the total 1,530 entries received from 82 nations, 199 films from 40 countries have been selected in competition categories.
