Satyajit Ray and Jean-Luc Godard Inspire Guha
The Escapist is 23-year-old Sayantan Guha’s short film that was recently chosen to be screened in the 19th Kolkata International Film Festival. Guha, a master’s in communication student at Jain University, Bangalore, made alive his 11-year-old dream of making a film. He aspires to become a film director. “The film festival went on for eight days and I had my short film screened for two days. It was a full house! It was a wonderful experience to share my film with industry veterans,” gushes Guha. “I had a chance to meet Adoor Golpalakrishnan and Kamal Hassan. Witnessing Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Mithun Chakraborty’s speeches was very encouraging,” he says.
The talented young director says there is no fixed order or principle to direct a movie. “The whole idea of directing a movie must be to convey your message,” he explains. Paola Bartoni, an Italian film critic appreciated his work. Informs Guha, “She said my work was outstanding compared to that of many directors and I was awarded ‘The Youngest Director of Kolkata Film Festival’ and The Escapist won second place in the shorts category.”
For Guha, the entire experience has given him a chance to live the life of an accomplished film director. “I feel proud to attend press conferences, radio interviews and have my name on the official magazine of the Festival. I got to interact with many directors, who shared their technical knowledge with me so that I can implement the same in my future films. I feel blessed,” shares Guha.
Drawing his inspiration from Satyajit Ray and Jean-Luc Godard, Guha aims to build a production house in Kolkata and is already working on his next short film, She Now In Bangalore.
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