Airgun. It’s only a toy (2021) Winner of seven international awards. Finalist in four. Four Official Selections. How does a ten-year-old pack her bag as she sets out on a journey that holds the promise of a great adventure? What if it is the journey that millions of migrant families went on in the summer of 2020, following the announcement of a draconian nationwide lockdown by the government of India?
Taxi…an uncertain conversation (2021) Winner of ten international awards, finalist in three with one nomination. In the beginning of the year 2020, reality, as we know it, changed. Changed colour, changed shape. Fluid, mobile, soft around the edges, losing definition, unfocussed; no longer that sharp, stable, unidirectional little thing that we could rely on. And memory, that eternal shape-shifter, did her own number. Taxi is a story that happened some time in the pre-pandemic world. In the dying days of a lost time. When the world had a bizarre quality of certainty to it. When we travelled - every day - chasing inconsequential dreams, fulfilling meaningless habits; fighting, living, adding to the carbon footprint; loving, hating, making new friends and raising a toast to absent ones. Maybe the taxi-driver dreamt of the passenger. Or, maybe it was the other way round. Maybe she was never there, maybe he is one of the millions who travel every day, looking for that elusive moment of razor-sharp clarity, when the chance conversation with a stranger offers a semblance of reason and certainty in an unsure world.
The Swamp Girl: Lokhandwala One
NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
A young woman’s body is found in the mangroves bordering Lokhandwala, the prosperous suburb of Mumbai. Who is she?
Jenny finds an abandoned car on the street near the mangroves. The car belongs to Anu. But where is she?
One part of a pair of women’s dress shoes is found at the crime scene. Whom does it belong to?
What secrets are the three friends Viren, Shafat, and Anil hiding?
What does the recluse billionaire Roy know?
Why did ASI Rana seek a Mumbai posting?
Who has Rohan, Jenny’s brother-in-law, come to meet in Mumbai?
What drives Jenny’s obsession with the story of the swamp-girl?
Who is Paromeeta?
Everybody has a secret. Everyone’s a suspect.
projects.
Documentary
Finding Ram (2023) Who is Ram? What is the Ramayan? How many Ramayans are there? Who are the tellers of the epic? What are the origins of the myth? How do the disciplines of history, sociology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, geography, linguistics, and folklore inform in our understanding of the epic? How have the myth been appropriated, adopted, changed to suit one’s identity? What are the dominant critical readings of the events, places, protagonists in the myth? What are the lesser-known critical readings of the events, places, protagonists in the myth? What are the performative arts that have been inspired by the myth? What is the geography of the epic? How does one date the epic? What are the cultural footprints of the epic? How does one understand the oral culture of storytelling? How has the myth and its understanding been influenced by the post-truth world of the 21st century? ‘Finding Ram’ is a six-part documentary series that sets out to understand the Ramayan myth and its omnipresence in the collective consciousness of the people of the Indian Subcontinent and abroad. Hosted by Aparshakti Khurana, it is being produced by Pawns Don’t Like Chess Media Pvt Ltd, in association with Applause Entertainment (Aditya Birla Group). Streaming soon.
Indie Films
Taxi ... (2021) Many memories. Many pasts. Like The Joker once said: ‘...if I have a past, I would like it to be multiple choice.’ Interesting, no? - whatever he meant by that. In the beginning of the year 2020, reality, as we know it, changed. Changed colour, changed shape. Fluid, mobile, soft around the edges, losing definition, unfocussed; no longer that sharp, stable, unidirectional little thing that we could rely on. And memory, that eternal shape-shifter, did her own number. Taxi is a story that happened some time in the pre-pandemic world. In the dying days of a lost time. When the world had a bizarre quality of certainty to it. When we travelled - every day - chasing inconsequential dreams, fulfilling meaningless habits; fighting, living, adding to the carbon footprint; loving, hating, making new friends and raising a toast to absent ones. Maybe the taxi-driver dreamt of the passenger. Or, maybe it was the other way round. Maybe she was never there, maybe he is one of the millions who travel every day, looking for that elusive moment of razor-sharp clarity, when the chance conversation with a stranger offers a semblance of reason and certainty in an unsure world. We were all a bit crazy, no, before the pandemic hit us, and made us truly question our firm notion of immortality? Winner of numerous international awards, from Best Original Story at Cannes Shorts, to Best Screenplay at Rio, to Best Short Film Finalist at Toronto, to Best Film Winner at Kolkata and Pondicherry, to Best Actor and Best Actress at California, the story of Taxi is an universal story of friendship and separation in the lost days leading up to the pandemic. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15781370/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Airgun (2020). How does a ten-year-old pack her bag as she sets out on a journey that holds the promise of a great adventure? What if it is the journey that millions of migrant families went on in the summer of 2020, following the announcement of a draconian nationwide lockdown by the government of India? 'Airgun' was shot in the month of July 2020, when India was still under a total lockdown, when the newspapers were abuzz with the unique phenomenon of tens of millions of people on the move. Through fields, forests, rivers, mountains, highways, they walked; men, women, children, families escaping the ire of the pandemic, and that of an apathetic society that chose to lock themselves away inside homes and within the safe confines of their micro-bubbles. India's migrant population walked, trying to get back to their villages. Through the Indian summer, when temperatures in some parts of the country go as high as fifty degrees celsius, with recourse to scarce food and water, mowed down by passing express trains, collapsing through sheer exhaustion, sprayed with industrial-grade pesticides as they neared big cities - it was a modern-day tragedy of the scale of a Bengal famine, a Rohingya exodus, a destruction of Syria. Made with friends and a few like-minded individuals, 'Airgun' is an ode to the indomitable migrant spirit that runs modern-day economies; the dispossessed masses of various creeds, caste, race, and religion who are ignored at the best of times and systemically persecuted in times of strife and conflict. Kosice, Prague, Peru, New York, Rome, London, Singapore, Bangalore, Kolkata - Airgun drew a connect with audiences worlwide winning thirteen awards and nominations. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15779582/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Factual
Shorts
Promos
brands.
we like.
Us.
Creative
Commercial
Script
Avijit Mitra Director, Filmmaker, Writer, with more than two decades of experience through broadcast, digital, and OTT content production. Creative Director and Branding Specialist with the Star TV Network, UTV, Turner, NDTV, Warner Brothers, and ESPN. https://filmfreeway.com/AvijitMitra
Rajesh P. Muthreja Commercial and Production in-charge since the late 1990s with broadcast, digital, OTTs, and advertising.
Sreekanth Agneeaswaran Born in Varanasi to a Tam-Bram family, brought up in Kolkata and making a living in Mumbai, I have most of India infused in me by default. And it reflects in all the characters in all my creations. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreekanth-agneeaswaran-72542812
Production
Editing
Research
Assoc. Direction
Vilas Nakte Everything will happen! More than two decades of experience in production, commercial, creative line production with all major media houses in the country as well as all broadcast and web-based platforms producing in India.
Karan Varia Don't let his impressive collection of eyewear fool you. A seasoned professional with an honest and diligent work-ethic. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5664822/
Anuvratty Saxena Loves to know, from anything to everything. In the spirit of exploring, have worked in public health system, finance industry, criminal justice system and on people’s biodiversity register. http://linkedin.com/in/anuvratty-saxena-8750ab151
Siddesh Iyer Astute work ethics and a diligence to details make Siddesh an uncommonly useful Asst. Director through the various stages of a production. https://www.behance.net/gallery/130912545/Workreel