There are different ways and mediums to make a difference to society, and for some like Anshul Sinha, it’s about making use of the available resources and the will to give back to the people to make that difference through filmmaking. “I wanted to do something for the development of our nation. In college, we used to collect `1 from every student and use it for some social cause. What struck me was that any person who donated, any amount of money, needs to know where it is going. So, we made a short film on how we collected the money and where we used it,” explains the 25-year-old who pursued his MBA from Avanthi PG College in Hyderabad, at the same time juggling a diploma in Mass Communication from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
The money collected was donated to a school for the visually-impaired, which was neglected for a long time. The short documentary caught the attention of Lions Club of Hyderabad. “Since then I started making documentary films and attend different film festivals across the country,” Anshul says.
The young filmmaker has made 41 short films and documentaries till date, each having a social message attached to it. He has covered various causes through his films, including communalism, environment and the mafia. He has also won 90 awards at various film festivals across the globe. “Every film is related to some cause or the other and every film gives a solution to the problem. In my filmmaking, I show how the problem is arising, where it is leading, what is the impact of the problem and how it can be solved,” says Anshul.
Speaking about his best film till date, he says, “I made a documentary on Biomedical wastage, which was screened in countries like Australia. It addresses the amount of potentially infectious waste which is dumped around and how we can curb this.”
Anshul’s next documentary is titled Gateway to Heaven and highlights the international and local organ mafia. “We have been working on this film for the past one-and-a-half years and it will premiere on April 12,” he says, excitedly.
Despite gaining experience and recognition for his short films and documentaries, Anshul says he will not venture into mainstream commercial cinema. “We didn’t learn filmmaking professionally. We got exposure to filmmaking through the causes we are into and released our films on YouTube. The aim of our filmmaking is not to earn money, but to create awareness and to bring such topics, which are untouched and uncovered to people,” he says, passionately.
Funding does worry Anshul, for their films do not get the exposure that mainstream films do. “Film festivals are the only way where we can screen our films and show our videos to the audience. From the festivals, we get some money in the form of awards and with that money, we make the next documentary,” he adds, with a smile.
suhas@newindianexpress.com