Films that were made as academic projects are also a part of the 49th International Film Festival of India. Two such short films, ‘Bhar Dupari’ and ‘Happy Birthday’, both in Marathi are part of the festival.
Swapnil Vasant Kapure a television direction and student of FTII made his film ‘Bhar Dupari’ as an exercise. “Making this film for the most prestigious film school was a joy. As a student of film, there were no barriers and we wanted to experiment and preserve the name of the institute. We never thought of it as a professional venture, etc,” he said during a press conference.
Talking about the theme of his film he said: “It’s a story of a couple from a small village who return to the village. It’s a day in their life of how she’s going shopping for her baby shower in the afternoon, which takes a sudden turn,” he said. He is currently working on a film with Balaji Sutar a noted writer in Maharshtra.
His batch mate Medhpranav Babasaheb Powar has made the film ‘Happy Birthday’. Talking about ‘Happy Birthday’ which is a story of a son and his father he said: “As children we all have expectations from our parents and don’t know about their sacrifices, and that’s how the idea for ‘Happy Birthday’ came about,” he said.
The film is in a Marathi dialect spoken in rural Maharashtra and thus Powar had a lot of pre-production work. “Everything fell in place and the whole script was enhanced and developed through inputs from the actors,” Powar said. Karpure and Powar explained how they had to use aspects taught to them besides shooting within limitations that included shooting within a 15 kilometre radius.
The two directors have won National awards and have their films in the Indian Panorama section. However, they feel the responsibility on them as filmmakers is much more. “We are working together and want to explore and develop content, short films, web series, etc,” Powar said.