Shubhra Arya's Birthday June 16,2009

Summer 2009, i was in Bengaluru interning at Madura Garments (an subsidy of aditya birla nuvo ltd). There were 16 internees from different cities- Banglore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Gandhinagar... we became friends and within a span of 2 weeks, the girl from Mumbai-Shubhra had her birthday. She gave us treat in a place called Ohri's in Total mall. The ambience resembled a jungle.. tables, glasses everything seemed of the same jungle family.. had the time of the life...

We were divided into groups. Ma grp comprised of raj n neha(from nift blore), they both were dedicated and hard working and me the laziest!!! Sometimes i used to work...

We were given a conference room to work, but most of the time worked less and played computer games more - stick cricket (i think we all were addicted to it).So one day in conference room i had nothing to do n then i saw d pics n thought of converting them into a movie... within an hour the movie was ready to serve. This movie contains some of shubhra's birthday pics with a pinch of effects.

2 months time worth remembering...

Shubhra's birthday!!!

An unlucky incident

2008 - A year worth feeling sorry about, series of blasts in different cities, killing people. We also saw the terror attacks in Mumbai..which depressed the heart more...These events affected the muslim community, who were treated as terrorists. Somehow it affected me a lot, so the nift delhi team, decided to dedicate all our songs to the victims at the inter college event in Hyderabad.

Taking these as my inspiration, decided to make a movie. However there was no intentions of showing any kind of partiality towards any community.. ending was thought in a different way but because of lack of time, the present ending seems little lame... which means i am not satisfied with this movie...

Shoot began in January, my friend Siddhartha plays the lead role, of a poor student who eventually turns into a terrorist... witnessing the killings and the blasts in all the major cities creates a deep hatred inside his heart, forcing him to become a weapon of terror. The short film is not about terrorism but about the state of mind... how small things can change life...

The reason of such an abrupt ending was the spectrum 09, shortage of time n i was part of the organizing team.. however there were very less entries and that’s the reason I once again won 1st prize (Hatrick-3times in a row)

An Unlucky Incident - Slumdog Millionaire

cast - Siddhartha Tiwari, Himani Shukla, Antra Lodha, Aradhna Dutta, Nishant.

Location - NIFT, new delhi.

written n directed by Prem Samuel

jis lahore nahi vekhya woh jamia nai

This was my first theatre act.

Remember me mentioning about a theatre group called antraal..this is what gave me my first theatre... Was tough because the dailouges were mostly in urdu and punjabi. The performance happend in JNU campus' PSR open air theatre...

Now about PSR: a very well know place in JNU, seemed like it was left for ages, looked like jungle to me. Reaching there was kind of disappointed, thinking no one would turn up. Cleaned the place, made arrangements and finally the moment arrived, the play started in evenin 6:30 pm.

Had a moustache which kept on making me feel uncomfortable...Anyways, when the 1st scene happend, was schocked. Thanks to Almighty..there were some 200 people. Ambience, lighting, open sky favoured us... Place was awesome and so was the act..Unfortunately have no videos or pics of the same (because of camera prohibition), but m uploadin few practise session pics.

All I can carry forward from here is the art of lighting, acting (again), managing and the moral of not loosing hope... a great learning experience...

Below are the few practice session pics....

   

  

 

a Day with Dr. Palash Sen (Euphoria)

End of November but a beginning of a new experience.

Akbar and Azam got their break, they had to make the music video for an NGO, Oxfam, India. The video was based on the serious issues of global warming. Song was composed by the very well known band- EUPHORIA and thus begins the new journey...

An wednesday, around 5 o' clock, travelled in some deserted village in Haryana, cast and crew was already there and finally came in Palash Sen. (My first interaction with a celeberity, have seen many in fashion shows, in gigs but never got a chance to actually meet them)

The shot started quite late, n i followed my friend Amjad (assissting director). Quite a few learning came pouring in that day! At break time, had session with Dr.Palash..he sang few songs for us like ab na jaa, mayeri...and I sang tadap tadap ke (from hum dil de chuke sanam]..he appreciated it..and then I asked about his performances, what gives him the energy while he performs on the stage? The answer was, "i dont smoke..dont drink..have a balance diet and regular excersice..thats what keeps me healthy.. n Its the audience which gives me energy!!!" The day ended, the shoot was incomplete (which means i was unable to act). They wanted me on friday, but was unable to go due to my exams.

The shoot was finally done in Harayana and Shimla, video was launched in January with a grand festival in FICCI auditorium. Rahul Bose (well known actor) - the ambassador of Oxfam India launced it.. said a few words on changing environment and its effect n our responsibilities towards it. This was followed by a rockin performance by euphoria..

Happy Birthday DJ

It was November 8 in 2008, one of my classmates' birthday was around. Friends asked me to make a short film on her. Before going furthur sumthin about Divya:
she joined us in 3rd sem-that was in 2nd year, a transfer case from NIFT kolkatta, she was a topper, and so most of the people didnt liked her initially because of her wierd nature... Should not mention about it here!!! But by the end of 3rd year..she had made few friends..so we decided to do something special for her.. Took me around 5 days to complete it... asked sum of my batchmates to wish her on camera, some seniors (includin the old 1** pyaar karne waale.. ;) ) and 1 faculty too and Akbar and Azam. The same was screened on her bday in my flat... She had the emotional, tears of joy..n den blaah... blaah..i hv nothin more to say so... happy bday!!!

JANAM DIN MUBARAKH DJ!!!

My debut Film as an Actor

Deepawali holidays are time u spend with family.

When I reached home, the next morning I got a call from my old frnd Sunil ( I call him gabar). He wanted me to act in his elder brothers' film. Without giving it much thought i reached the location. It was about 120 km away from my place, in some jungles (forgot the name), in the borders of Jharkhand and Orissa. The group consists of some 15 to 20 people including the cast and the crew. We stayed in a relatives' place, had traditional local dinner and then left for the shoot into the woods. Oh I forgot to mention, its a horror flick...

we had this generators, huge reflectors..and a cart to carry them...and a sumo to carry us! Shooting lasted till 3 in the morning. Next day was the day to enjoy the beauty of woods, by this I mean the actual real ( poti kiya open air me)...n took bath in the pond..aah! wat an xperiance...n then again shot few scenes.

The shooting took longer than expected...20 people, alone in jungle, without any connection to the outer world, shooting in the dark, mosquitoes, chances of snake bites, fear of bear and elephants attack.. But luckily nothing happend. Finally the shoot got over, all left to take back was the experience of an actor ( played the role of lead actor's friend) and knowledge about camera angles.

In one shot had to jump in the river, at the middle of the night... That something i will always remember because it was freezing there when i did the scene.

Few snapshots

For d Sake of One GOD

This was for the entry for spectrum's short film fest' 08.

With my friends Siddhartha and Pranjal, we always end up discussing about religions. Its always a healthy one, discussing about pros and cons, truth and false, myth and truth and a lot more.

Like d coin, religion also does have 2 sides.

Taking interest, started reading about it. But the confusion still lasted... To place myself on a rigid foundation, visited places like jama masjid, vaishnodevi, gurudwara, lotus temple (also known as temple of bahai religion) n to a buddhist monestry(in madekeri,a place near bengaluru) . Still the question existed. If all religion teaches us about LOVE and PEACE, then why do we keep fighting for the same among ourselves?

I made this movie and named it after a book which I had read a few days back (gifted by my friend, Thomas Krugler from Germany). Siddhartha did the lyrics part of it and I did the composing and singing. Taking pictures and videos from the historic Gujarat riots as well as from the street plays with the theme "communal harmony",compiled it into one and made it. I won the 1st prize though it was a tie with a student from jamia islamia university.

But still the question reamins unanswered.. Do they fight for religion or does the religion makes them fight... Till today I am in search of the TRUTH...

FOR THE SAKE OF ONE GOD

Genre: Documentry

Music : Prem Samuel

Lyrics: Siddhartha Tiwari

tHe dAy k@us DiEd

October 25, 2007

"hE waS tHE cLosesT FriEnD oF mIne
LoveD 2 b DiFf..waS vEry CooL.. short TempeRd... eAsilY AttrActED 2wArds chIcKS......
But hiS suDDen D****............hAs......"

This is for u My Friend......U ll be always in our heart......like u said........."i M mE"

hey guys it was jst a joke...n kaus is still alive...n now d story behind it...

can still recall the day, i was in 3rd sem...few months ago the amphi was full of appericiation... Got this habit of exploring windows movie maker.. my roommate kept on bugging me to make a movie on him... i took his laptop, collected all d pics he had, dragged & dropped in media player n published it. Again had put the same in other software, name i cannot recall... Finally after seeing it , Kaus was very happy... The story doesn't end here... still was up some prank!!! sat and edited a new version of the same video... but this time " jinda kaus ko swargwasi kaus bana diya"...

no sooner was the video was uploaded, call started coming from places like mumbai, banglore and even from assam....

later in feb 2008... a friend of mine called up saying (almost after a year), that she saw someone who resembled kaus.... she had actually fallen for the thing.. of kaus being no more.. even Ritambhara called up from kolkata..
till date whenever kaus is ill, we tease him saying the videos gonna come true...

In Loving Memory of Kaus
Genre: Fiction
Music: Here without you- 3 doors down
Length: 3:51 min

Colors of Spectrum : Uth Quotient 2007

Someday in February 2007

Spectrum's second day... after dancing like crazy in the prom nite...i was caught by shanu sir, he wanted me to participate in a movie making competition the next day... the theme was about spectrum...

Hemant, Shanu, Rahul n me were given parts to work on.. Hemant went to his room to get the photographs which he had clicked in past 2 days...After knowing about the script , i came up with the lyrics of the song, which later became the the background score for the same. Rahul had taken up some videos from the past 2 days, which was later edited.. editing and all lasted for a real long time...we didnt sleep... morning 9 was the submission...

After d choreography competetion, the same movie was screened for some 370 to 400 people including people from DU colleges at Amphi Theatre, NIFT New Delhi around 5:00 PM.

We were awarded a 1st prize for the same... and thus happend the colors of spectrum....

COLORS OF SPECTRUM

Genre: Documentary

Length: 2:01 minutes

Editing by: Shanu Prasad
Music: Prem Samuel

Cinematography: Hemant and Rahul

Getting Started

They say, "Dilwalon ki delhi".... But the moment i walked in here, felt as if i am the only one with open arms to hug... hug myself... but sooner or later met my senior Shanu Prasad with a hearty open arms... books were never my piece of cake... rather i was much more intrested in cultural activities..

Later in 2007 Spectrum happened (college's annual event).. Shanu, Rahul, Hemant and me together came up with a short documentary on fest...

This is something i consider as my call for films...

Same fest introduced me to people like Akbar and Azam Quadri.. who were supposingly directing the play.. These were the people who made me aware more about the existence of acting...

Months later, met Akbar and Azam.. but the difference this time was that i met them in a workshop group called " antraal" rather than in a college play!!!

Conversation this time was more like a stepping stone... path towards learning how to act on, delivering dailouges etc.

The time came to prove myself... to prove that my learning was something worth valuing!!!

We performed a stage act (theatre) in PSR Open air theatre, JNU Campus called ""jis lahore nai vekhya woh jamia nai". After the sucess of the play, we performed again a series of street play for an ngo called OXFAM India. The play was about "global warming"...the play didnot restricted itself on the streets but rather moved on to places like colleges, malls and even in delhi haat...

This is how a new life was born in me, an actor, a filmmaker... was born.. and that's how started psdprem films....