Hyderabad to Harvard

Studying filmmaking may sound like the most chilled out subject ever, but when you take it as seriously as Nandi Chinni Kumar does, it’s not hard to see the kind of effort that you need to actually put into it. A PhD research scholar at the University of Hyderabad’s Comparative Literature programme, Nandi’s selection into the Institute for World Literature’s annual three-week long programme at Harvard University, Boston, was all the more special for him.

Getting to study and learn alongside around 100 students from across the globe, Nandi says the stream that he applied for — Film Studies — has already helped him think about his work in a broader sense. “I have learned critical thinking, how to read world literature text and its criticism. The teaching pedagogy is quite enriching and engaging and highly participative in nature. The Harvard environment will make you self disciplined, highly charged with academic seriousness, and makes you ambitious, focussed and gives the environment to achieve your academic aspirations,” says Nandi.

Growing up in Hyderabad, the journey to Harvard was a tough one but Nandi says that his parents’ unwavering support about his decision to study films is what got him through. “There was a lot of criticism I faced from friends and others, but my parents never discouraged me at any point of time. Instead they gave me freedom of choice to explore my passion,” he says, adding, “When I was struggling for funding, my parents came forward and supported me for the Harvard programme, even though we come from a middle class family.”

His hard work paid off when he was able to finish his “experimental debut film” The Seventh Bowl, that is currently doing the rounds at film festivals across the country, as well as have his short film Flycatcher screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival. “My next major focus will be to complete my PhD thesis as soon as possible, and to plunge into serious filmmaking to make a feature film. I’m also thinking of getting a post doctoral degree in World Cinema from a top university,” Nandi says.

The small-town-boy-making-it-big narrative may get old but it never gets boring, and living out his dream is Md Intaj Ali, who is currently at the Harvard University’s Institute of World Literature’s programme. With an eye for folk art, Intaj — who hails from Dubrajpur in West Bengal — is a PhD research scholar at the Comparative Literature programme in the University of Hyderabad. His work has primarily been focussed on digitising folk art forms in India, Bangladesh, and documenting them.

The son of a beedi-factory owner Md Maniruddin, Intaj moved to Hyderabad and studied at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, and later pursued Master of Philosophy from UoH.

Speaking about the course at Harvard, Intaj says, “I have met many acclaimed scholars from around the world which will help me in my future collaboration. I can also receive comments, suggestions and also contribute by exchanging ideas,” adding that having the experience to study at Harvard is “academically enriching”. Some of those ideas have already been in motion for Intaj, with him having the opportunity to curate the Bangla Digital Folk Archive and the Folk Culture Archive, both digital formats for preserving and documenting tribal and folk arts from India and Bangladesh.