Up, close and personal with the directors of 'Chaar Cutting'

Short films have never got the kind of attention mainstream cinema is accustomed to. However, there has been growing awareness about this format of films among audiences — which has spelt good news indeed for aspiring filmmakers working on shorts. And perhaps as a sign of this emerging interest, four filmmakers — Hardik Mehta, Vijayeta Kumar, Anuj Gulati and Vivek Soni — have now had a chance to bring their movies to the big screen, courtesy PVR.

Each of these filmmakers have directed a short (Skin Deep by Hardik, Blouse by Vijayeta, Manila Running by Anuj and Bawdi by Vivek), and these in turn have been compiled into a feature film called Chaar Cutting. The film will have its theatrical release is on May 29.

When The Mumbai Age caught up with the young filmmakers for a chat, they had plenty to say on the challenges of making short films, what the future holds for the format, their career plans and more. Excerpts from our interview with the four young talents…

I came across an article about a place called Kaladera in Jaipur and there’s a Coca Cola plant there. It’s been there since 1999. In 1998, the Central Ground Water Board declared that the existing demands on the groundwater were not sustainable. After that Coca Cola set up their plant there. Any cold drink company uses a lot of ground water to manufacture their product. It was already over exploited and there was no water for the farmers to survive. I did some research, I spoke to the people and I realised that I have to tell a story on this issue. I always wanted to make a love story for my first short film. So I used this issue as a backdrop and created a fictional love story around it.

In terms of creative challenges, the narrative structure is quite different. You have to be very precise with how many dialogues and how much skin time you're investing in each and every character. And in terms of production challenges, most often you don't get a good budget to shoot your film. When I was making Bawdi I had only four days to shoot. So I had to shoot my film in Nashik - I wanted to shoot in Rajasthan, but I couldn't afford it.

Recently I was working on Udta Punjab and the performance of Alia Bhatt was breathtaking.

I want to develop Bawdi into a feature so I have already started working on a script. I have 2-3other concepts.

I was living in Manila for three months… experiencing this feeling of being lost in a chaotic city… I thought why not write this out? And it was also the time when I found out what my point of view was on films. It was a crucial time for me as a filmmaker.

It has to be accepted that such packages cannot be made for the masses. There can be interesting ways of exploring how to package them (short films). There was a film comprising 10 shorts, which didn’t quite work, but there is stuff to explore.

Abhay Deol.

I’m editing a short that I just finished filming in Bhopal. Don’t want to make any more short films, it’s time to move on…

I found this story in a magazine and got in touch with the writer and he let me adapt it. We wrote the screenplay together. I changed the ending and a lot of other things. I was lucky to find the actors I wanted.

I guess mainstream publicity would help. But it’s very hard. A Chaar Cutting would never play in Ajmer. I was there when Gangs of Wasseypur released and I really wanted to watch it. I went three days after the film released and it was already out of the theatres, and they were playing Dabangg instead, which was running houseful — it had released about a year ago. In big cities you still have an audience for this kind of cinema (short films). That is something I’m happy about.

Kangana Ranaut. I love her.

A documentary on the redevelopment of Bhendi Bazaar.

Vikramaditya (Motwane), who I assisted on Lootera, wrote the script for Skin Deep. Post-Lootera, I thought of pitching a feature to him. I sent him my script and he felt it had potential, and he also told me that I needed to have a strong showreel.. He told me to make a short, but that the better test would be to translate someone else’s story visually. He had a script for a short… I made the film more Mumbai-based and changed a few things about the characters and location. I added my own take to it — which I’m not sure how much Vikramaditya likes!

The first challenge is whether or not you are able to narrate a story. You can tell an actor what to do, and you can tell a cinematographer what to do but those are all individual talents. All of them have to be synergised during filmmaking, when you are standing on a set and there are 25 people around asking questions! That’s when you need to ask yourself if you’re able to tell this story cohesively or not. Secondly, you have to tell much more in a short duration. The shorter the film the more impact it should have, and that has to come through editing and through your narrative.

How should you get audiences more excited about the format and get more platforms to feature your films?

In the ’80s there was a culture of “morning shows” — either a soft porn or an intellectual film — a regular thing with the cinema-going crowd. If we had a culture like this — you know that every weekend at 10 am, there will be good films playing at a theatre near you, the audience will go.

Irrfan Khan.

I’m working on a documentary on kite runners, which is currently in post-production.