Amongst the sheer number of films that Indian film industries churn out each year, a vast majority will feature some sort of action sequences, in a bid to cater to wider audiences. But pure action films are relatively rare in the country, even as films like RRR, Baahubali, and Pathaan have enjoyed tremendous success, even in the West. The appeal of such films lies in the over-the-top action set pieces and the sheer presence of ‘superstar’ actors. In such an environment, an indie action featurette, by a budding filmmaker from Bengaluru has been receiving rave reception from across the world.
The best action film, best trailer, best thriller, and best actor are some of the accolades that The Survivor, a 37-minute long action-packed thriller by actor-filmmaker Rajath Rajanikanth has received so far this year from the likes of Cannes International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival among others.
Currently streaming on OTT, the film follows the protagonist Axel Chase, played by Rajanikanth, who after attaining a plethora of skills from an experiment gone wrong, mounts an escape from the clutches of an evil organisation hell-bent on capturing him. Despite the relatively short runtime, the film has been praised for its incredible cinematography, stellar story-telling, and most importantly realistic high-octane action sequences.
“I’m really happy that the film looks like it was created by a big crew and everything. People think that we had a large budget. But the budget was less than the price of an expensive smartphone!” says Rajanikanth, who also co-wrote, directed, edited, and colour-graded the film.
Alumni of St. Joseph’s College, Rajanikanth also received three best actor awards–from the Rameshwaram International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and Rome Film Fest. “I consider myself an actor first and a filmmaker second. But with this film, the limited budget meant that I had to take on most of the responsibilities, which left little room for me to give my best as an actor. Yet being recognised with not one, but three best actor awards for whatever little input I have given was incredibly humbling,”he shares.
Born into a family of engineers, Rajanikanth went against the wishes of his family to pursue a career in showbiz. But given the lack of connections to the film industry, he first enrolled in an acting class in 2019, which was interrupted by the pandemic. During that time, he successfully created a homage video to the hit series Money Heist which garnered the attention of the makers of the series. Encouraged, Rajanikanth decided to work on his next project, which became
The Survivor. “The whole point of the film for me was not to make money; we are still not making money. But rather to put my work out there and pitch myself to producers in the film and television industries. I eventually want whatever I’ve done to be a pitch to the producers so that I can stand among the thousands of others who give auditions every day,” he concludes.