When it comes to films,he has successfully been the knight in shining armour who rescues damsels in distress. In the real world,it takes a miracle and the universe to make someone like Shah Rukh Khan stand by you. Shailja Gupta is one such exception. Reeling under a cash crunch,King Khan,also a long time friend,offered her the Red Chillies facility and post-production money to help finish and release her first feature film,Walkaway. Gupta had worked as digital marketing head for Ra.One and developed the character of G.One besides working on digital and paper comic books and film-based mobile games. The happy ending got even better when Resul Pookutty (the Oscar-winning sound designer) worked on the sound design for her film,and music directors Vishal-Shekhar and Ram Sampath composed songs for free. Call it the beginners luck or Guptas entrepreneurial spirit,her cross- cultural film,that released in the US in 2010,is getting an Indian welcome this year. Inspired by her friends,Walkaway is a light-comedy drama,that mocks social obligations felt by young Indian professionals settled in New York City. Gupta delves into the lives of Indian Americans living the American dream,aspiration,love,marriage,pressure of having a kid and coming to terms with their roots. I was surrounded by the Indian diaspora,those who had passed out from IIMs and IITs,wanting to explore. Yet they got into arranged marriages and were still in conflict with their roots, she says. A veiled urban dowry system,affairs and the dating game,compromises demanded from a cross-cultural couple,the film weaves through the lives of four friends who struggle to balance Indian values with modern environs. To reach her audience directly and save on money,Gupta has released her film in India this month via a new platform called the in-video paywall. Check out Walkawaymovie.com or Facebook.com/walkawaymovie,log on to first of its kind in-video paywall,pay Rs 150 and view the movie. One can also download the songs from the Android Market Place and iTunes. This might just be the thing that every independent film maker would choose to adopt in future to showcase their art, says Gupta,who feels that iTunes and YouTube are very competitive and take a chunk of earnings. So,I decided to put in money into my own website and screen the film on it. Its cheap,easy and anyone can do it, says Gupta adding that being a techie came in handy for her. She is,after all,no newbie to experimentation. From kickstarting her career as a web designer,moving over to film publicity and design,to investing ten years in her company Techshastra a web development company to visualising SRK World for Shah Rukh Khan and launching Mediacurry.tv,an entertainment portal,Gupta jumped from one opportunity to another till the film bug bit her. Like jobs,she switched cities too Kolkata to Mumbai and now to New York where she lives and her debut film,Walkaway is based. A restless high-risk taker,Gupta took a crash course in film from New York after which she wrote her film with with friend Ruchita Lalwani. It took them a month to write and another 28 days to shoot it. The budget was tight,and I scraped through with rookies on board with me, tells Gupta. A student of pottery and sculpting,she also used her art in Walkaway. Because its not just another American-born-confused -desi story,Gupta had a tough time convincing distributors about her new age movie. The film stars New Yorks South Asian actors Manu Narayan,Samrat Chakrabarty,Manish Dayal, Saniv Jhaveri,Deepti Gupta,Carrie Anne,James,Pallavi Sharda,and Ami Sheth.
