HYDERABAD: Aspiring and young filmmakers in the city are making the most of the lockdown days with unique storytelling methods. Shravan Kotha, a city-based independent Telugu short filmmaker, has made two short films namely COVID-19 and Late Comers 7 for YouTube. The former educates people on the Coronavirus while the latter is a humorous take about a lecturer who video calls his students to check if they are safe and following the lockdown rules.
He says, “The recent episode of Late Comers was shot at home by the respective actors who have acted in it with the help of their family. We conducted the rehearsals through video calls and I did the post-production work. This episode reached 1 million views just in three days.”
The writer-director said, “I have made 18 short films in Telugu and released them on YouTube, receiving good response with million views as well.” Shravan added that he is writing a feature film and another new episode of Late Comers shot during the lockdown is slated to release online after the post-production phase.
Krishna Chaitanya, who has directed Telugu short films like Drop, Guptam, Mornight, and RIP says, “The biggest advantage of this lockdown is that we have enough time in hand to think about creative narrations and make short films. However, there are also certain disadvantages like most of us sitting at home might experience writer’s block eventually affecting the idea we work on.”
Chaitanya having worked in the pre-production phase of two films looks forward to using his skills and direct films on the stories he has written. He adds, “The ray of hope lies in the online streaming platforms where we can easily access and upload our films opening new opportunities to us,” said Chaitanya. He added that a lot of people are experimenting with shooting films while at home. He says this is a great step and enables shooting films without thinking of expenditure.
Yohan George, another city-based short filmmaker who received awards for his short films Wake Up, Quarantine and You Don’t Have To Understand at three national film festivals held in the city, says, “I have been learning 3D rendering during the lockdown and might release some fresh 3D realism content once the situation is better. I am planning to do some freelance work as well for some time and also intend to shoot music videos that I have been offered.”
Yohan added that he uses Instagram to reach out to people when he works on smaller experimental video projects and photography. The pandemic is surely not making lives easy at this moment but on a positive note for the short filmmakers in the city this is an opportunity to work towards making their dreams come through.