The glamour of the silverscreen dazzles many for the instant fame that it provides. Abhishek K S however is different, whose only motive is to bring out good short films; those he can relate to and those that reflect his identity while staying within his budget.
Abhishek says, “I always prefer to be part of the entire filmmaking process, from direction to dubbing. Being a novice in cinema, I am not proficient in all fields, yet I always like to get myself involved in the whole process. In filmmaking, I have been inspired by American filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, and I would like to emanate his style.”
Abhishek’s life is nothing short of a film script. He started making films at the age of 16 with ‘De Facto’, a short film based on fantasy, which was part of an English project at his school, Bhavans Adarsha Vidyalaya in Kochi. There was no turning back from there as he went forward to start his own production company ‘YSP’. “The name has no meaning or no full form, those alphabets just popped into my mind.” said Abhishek.
In the beginning ‘YSP’ was a joint venture by Abhishek and his friend Philip, but later on Philip left for Chennai for his higher studies and Abhishek joined Maharaja’s for B.Sc Physics. But ‘YSP’ never waned. He developed the venture to new zeniths with the support of his college friends, Rakesh and Vishnu.
The team came out with a short film ‘Wide Awake’, that was shortlisted at the BIMS short film festival in 2009. The following year the YSP team grew larger becoming a team of 15 members, each being from Maharaja’s College.
The team produced their first film ‘SNUFF’ during the same year. From then onwards, it has been a progressive journey for YSP.
‘Absent M’ one of their most highly acclaimed films, is based on an individual’s journey and his struggles with short term memory loss.
The movie bagged the best script and best actor awards at an inter state Contemporary Film Festival. ‘Absent M’ also won the Best Script, Best Director, Best Actor and the Second Best film awards at Short View 2012 conducted by ‘All Kerala Photographer’s Association’.
Their latest film ‘Exhibit’, a movie that mocks the pseudo modern-art lovers, has received a great response from wherever it has been screened. The movie bagged the first prize at AVA- National Campus Video Fest held at ASAN Media School, Chennai. It also received a Special Jury award at Gateway DMS National Film Festival and second place at Deepwoods, short film fest at MCC College.
‘En Friend Pola Yaara Macha’ was the last short film they did before their last days of college, which won for them the Second Best Film at a State level Short Film Fest.
The 21-year-old cineaste, who is pursuing his masters in ‘Animation and VFX’, is now trying his hand at script writing for feature films. He says, “YSP is now focusing on a feature film script. We can’t reveal much as the project is still in the initial stage.”