In a classic case of small-town guy taking the world by storm, young filmmaker Rajendra Vinod has received global acclaim for his short films. Hailing from Hindupur in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, Vinod has made 15 short films over the past one year and is the recipient of nine international, one national and one regional awards. His biggest achievement came when his short film, Change, was included in the Oscars’ library in December 2014. He also co-owns a production house, Aarvi Films, which was recently adjudged the Best Emerging Production House at Bangalore Short Films Festival, and Best Production House at the International Short Films Award in Delhi. However, like many successful filmmakers, Vinod’s success came the hard way.
“Right from my childhood, I’ve been passionate about fictional short stories. I did my schooling and engineering in Hindupur and I did not have much knowledge about films back then. While doing engineering, I also pursued BSc Psychology through distance education. At the age of 20, I completed both degrees. Then I got the opportunity to do MS in Science and Technology in Asia University in Taiwan,” shares Vinod.
Despite a potentially life-changing opportunity in front of him, Vinod did not make the trip to Taiwan and refused the offer due to problems in his personal life. “I, then, pursued MSc Applied Psychology from Anamayya University and MA journalism from Sikkim Manipal University through distance education,” he explains. In spite of getting several degrees under his belt, Vinod was relentless in following his passion and continued to follow his filmmaking dream.
“From childhood I was really interested in fictional short stories and wanted to make them into films. I tried to shoot films in Hindupur itself but I couldn’t manage to do even one short film there. That’s when I decided to come to Bangalore and did MS multimedia from Wiztoonz College, Bangalore. The only reason I joined the college is to do short films,” says the 24-year-old.
Even though it took him several years of education and multiple degrees before taking him on the path he always wanted to go along, Vinod says he has no regrets. “No one in my family is highly educated, I’m happy that I’ve had a good education. I’ve completed two UGs and three PGs by the age of 23. My family is illiterate and orthodox but not conventional, a rare combination in society. We faced many problems and acted according to the situation, but my parents always tried to protect my individuality,” he says, proudly.
Thus, Vinod began making short films. He initially suffered a few setbacks when his films’ release was stalled due to lack of funds despite the shooting having been completed. “Then I started the short film, Change, with only one character. It got a lot of awards. After that I decided to make a documentary on Lepakshi, a small town in Anantapur close to my hometown,” Vinod reveals.
Change’s screenplay was given the honour of being included in the Oscar library, and this added to his accomplishment. An unusual feat he achieved was the dubbing of Change and Lepakshi in 11 languages, namely English, French, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.
“Unfortunately, I could not afford to make anymore good production short films, so I decided to do something out of my already produced short films. That’s when I decided to dub Change and Lepakshi in other languages. Both these films are now in contention for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for ‘Most dubbed short fiction film’ and ‘Most dubbed short documentary’, respectively,” he says.
Vinod, who also received national recognition for being the ‘Most awarded documentary filmmaker in a single year’, says his journey was not an easy one. “I faced many problems, including financial issues. Also, people here in Bangalore won’t accept a small-town guy as a leading short filmmaker in the city now,” he says.
— suhas@newindianexpress.com