Pune filmmaker clicks at Los Angeles with low-budget, high-impact Newborns

Preeti’s story of a jealous neighbour throwing acid on her has reached Los Angeles.

The No Budget Films focuses next-gen filmmakers who bank on art alone and not lucre.

It was Delhi-based girl Preeti Rathi’s death in Mumbai after an acid attack that spurred Pune filmmaker Megha Ramaswami — who read about it in a newspaper — into action. Preeti’s story of a jealous neighbour throwing acid on her because she was to join a job and he was unemployed had rocked the nation, and now it has reached Los Angeles, through the filmmaker’s lens.

Preeti was on her way to join a naval hospital as lieutenant nurse when the acid attack ruined her lungs, and her dreams. Megha read about Preeti and decided “not to move on” like most readers would. She decided to sit up and take notice, and make others take notice, with empathy and not sympathy. That was how Ramaswamy’s film, Newborns, was born.

The film that did the rounds of several national and international film festivals was selected by No Budget Films, Collaborative Arts Los Angeles, for the Special Mention for Innovation Award. The No Budget Films focuses next-gen filmmakers who bank on art alone and not lucre. The film puts creativity before money. The film was chosen from more than 30 entries from 10 countries.

Story continues below this ad

“I am happy the film has been selected. It has been selected by the jury under special mention and it means a lot,” said Megha. The eight-minute film produced by Recyclewala Labs’ Sohum Shah and Anand Gandhi and Ruchi Bhimani premiered in Toronto earlier this year. Her research on acid attack victims drew her to Delhi-based NGO ‘Stop Acid Attacks’. The film conceived as an exploration of a world imagined was enacted by survivors of acid attacks and attempted to provide a lens for them to look forward to life. Teasers show an acid victim travelling with a clown sitting behind her. Like the clown’s, one does not get to see their actual faces. The aim is to sensitize society about horrors of acid attacks and life post the attack.

The talented FTII filmmaker, who schooled at St Helena’s in the city, and completed her Bachelor’s from Symbiosis before specialising in screenplay and creative arts from Florence, says she is happy that FTII graduates are doing well at such festivals. Her father Ram Iyer, project director at Science and Technology Park, says he is proud of his daughter’s achievement. “We are very happy for our daughter,” says Iyer and wife Usha Ramaswamy, a singer.

The film delves on statistics of acid attacks and how women’s lives are ruined after acid attacks scar them for life and they are shunned by society. It also has statistics that show cases registered by police are slowly rising. The film bagged the jury award for best short documentary at the Delhi International Short Film Festival and is all set to be showcased at Women’s International Film Festival. The filmmaker is known for her screenplay for Shaitan and has another short film, Bunny, which was selected for the Geneva film festival.

Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.