Two Days to Win It

The third Delhi edition of the 48-Hour Film Project has a line-up of participants from different professions

The idea was simple enough. Make a seven-minute film from scratch in 48 hours. As the tension built up for the 48-Hour Film Project (48HFP) on Friday,the team leaders of the 71 groups picked their genres by drawing chits from a hat. Some got romance,few settled on comedy,while the others grimaced at the thought of making a sci-fi movie. Those who were unsatisfied with their genre,had to make do with the theme of martial arts. This is how the third Delhi edition of the 48HFP kicked off at Sri Aurobindo Centre For Arts and Communication,at 7 pm.

After keeping the participants on tenterhooks,the organisers announced the prop was a passport. The characters could be Jaganlal or Jyoti Khurana,a businessman and a woman respectively. The central dialogue in all themes was,There

must be another side to the story. The deadline for submission is 7 pm today.

The 48HFP was an initiative started by two US-based filmmakers Mark Ruppert and Liz Langston in 2001,to see what can be done in 48 hours. The competition is part of a 120-city world tour and Preeti Gopalkrishnan and co-producer Yogi Chopra have organised the event in four cities across India Delhi,Chennai,Hyderabad and Mumbai. Many think that 48 hours is too short to make a film. The competition tries to prove that good films can be made within that time frame, says Chopra. The 2012 winning film from the Hyderabad edition,Anukokunda,was screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner.

Saurabh Sikka,a doctor by profession,is participating in the competition for the third time. With no prior experience in filmmaking,the reason he comes back every year is because of the camaraderie at the competition. Everyone cheers for a good film and I admire the appreciation one gets for a film, he says. His team of three called,Heart Command,comprising a lawyer,doctor and an engineer,had to make a movie on the theme of horror. Coincidently,Sikka worked on the same genre last year. The last time,he played the role of a teacher,a psycho-killer,who casts a spell on his students he doesnt like,by making them recite rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall and killing them in a similar setting. We eagerly await the twist in the tale this year.

All films will be screened

at Blue Frog on August 21,

6 pm onwards.

Contact: 30800300

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