“Content is the king,” stresses Priyadarshi Pulikonda when you ask him the trick to attract more people to watch short films.
Priyadarshi has directed three short films till date. “Though they have not been able to reach many people, they have managed to touch the heart of every person who has watched it,” he beams.
The communication graduate from the University of Hyderabad, started making short films much before he even passed out from there.
“Imade Shaatir in 2011 while I was still studying.” He later on went on to make Ponnu-Vaadu in 2012 and The Delivery in 2013 which has recieved the maximum appreciation.
The director who aims at bringing in a moment of introspection among audience through his short films, draws inspiration from the society when he has to come up with a story. “For instance,in the film Poonu-Vaadu, I have tried to show why women deserve respect,” he explains.
The director, apart from just making movies, has also acted in 12 short films and six feature films and both his professions go hand-in-hand.
“While I started making short films, I always felt like there is a lot more to learn about film making. I was curious about what goes on in an actor’s mind. That’s when I decided to take a break from filmmaking and stepping into an actor’s shoes.”
For the past two years, apart from just acting in films, he has also taken out time to understand how a character is framed, how scripts are made and also the technicalities of it. He has also understood that networking makes the job easy for a filmmaker and is using the opportunity to meet as many people as possible.
“All this will also help me to convince the producers while making feature films,” the 25-year-old says.
A newbie in filmmaking and in the industry, one major hurdle Priyadarshi had to overcome was to get to know about the industry and make people build confidence in him. “My short films helped me do that as people got to know about my work after watching them,” quips the actor who will soon be seen in feature films releasing this summer. One of them is Bommala Ramaram directed by debutant director Nishant Pudhari and another is an untitled film by Satish Kasetty where he is working with actor Srikanth, Ravi Varma, actress Nikita and theatre personality Vinay Varma.
Sharing this experience he says, “Every person I am working with is very humble. Satish Kasetty has helped me learn how to make characters express a particular emotion or feeling.”
Priyadarshi attributes his success to his professors in the university who gave him the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them and to his friends who assisted him while making films.
He has a few screenplays ready with him and will start with making short films and feature films again next year.