Shweta Mehta Sen

When actors are&nbsp;taking&nbsp;time out and charging&nbsp;little or no money to star in&nbsp;short films, and feature film&nbsp;directors are putting in their&nbsp;dough to make them, you&nbsp;know the Indian movie-goer&nbsp;is readily embracing the&nbsp;shorter format.&nbsp;Anurag Kashyap has made&nbsp;almost a dozen of them since&nbsp;2010, and Vikas Bahl directed&nbsp;one on women’s safety last&nbsp;year, casting Alia Bhatt in the&nbsp;lead role. More recently, Sujoy&nbsp;Ghosh and Radhika Apte&nbsp;won acclaim for the thriller&nbsp;Ahalya, which he directed and&nbsp;she starred in. And Konkona&nbsp;Sen Sharma and Tillotama&nbsp;Shome won similar praise for&nbsp;their turn in Jaydeep Sarkar’s&nbsp;Nayantara’s Necklace.Is short film-making&nbsp;finally getting its due then?&nbsp;Accolade-wise, yes, but&nbsp;economically, far from it.&nbsp;Ghosh admits that he’s in a&nbsp;position to invest in the craft,&nbsp;but he’s well aware that he&nbsp;shouldn’t expect profits. “I&nbsp;made Ahalya purely out of passion, or for any credibility&nbsp;it might earn, and I have&nbsp;to be satisfied with that,”&nbsp;he admits, adding that it&nbsp;gave him a huge kick to see&nbsp;viewers give his 15-minute&nbsp;film the respect of a full length&nbsp;feature.<img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Elayichi_1ccba486dc.jpg">On the other side of&nbsp;the spectrum is Devashish&nbsp;Makhija, who has made four&nbsp;short films this year, including&nbsp;the Nimrat Kaur-starrer&nbsp;El’ayichi. “I made two films&nbsp;with the support of Terribly&nbsp;Tiny Talkies (TTT), and one&nbsp;each with Pocket Films and&nbsp;Muvizz.com. TTT gave me a,&nbsp;flat amount of Rs 50,000 per&nbsp;film, but it is impossible to make a film of 5 minutes or&nbsp;more of any technical quality&nbsp;in that kind of amount, so&nbsp;I spent a lot more from my&nbsp;own pocket,” he says. “The&nbsp;investment is abysmally&nbsp;low, because none of these&nbsp;platforms know how to make&nbsp;money off these films. Right&nbsp;now, we’re in the middle of a&nbsp;bubble quite like the dot com&nbsp;bubble from many years ago.&nbsp;By this time next year, 95 per&nbsp;cent of the current players&nbsp;will have burnt their fingers&nbsp;and shut their short film&nbsp;shops. TTT already has.”A similar sentiment is&nbsp;echoed by Apurva Asrani.&nbsp;A short film he made in&nbsp;2007 went unnoticed in&nbsp;India despite getting award&nbsp;nominations at foreign&nbsp;film festivals. After editing&nbsp;Nayantara’s Necklace this&nbsp;year, things looked up&nbsp;significantly since YouTube&nbsp;has, by now, become&nbsp;a prominent means of&nbsp;exhibition. “Where we’re at&nbsp;today is that beyond a certain&nbsp;number of hits, Youtube&nbsp;is actually monetizing&nbsp;your videos, which never&nbsp;happened earlier. But they&nbsp;pay a pittance, and those&nbsp;economics need to change&nbsp;pronto,” he explains.<img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Nayantaras_Necklace_1d4a421870.jpg">Asrani accepts that&nbsp;many make short films&nbsp;as a stepping stone, but&nbsp;some are turning shorter&nbsp;content — PSAs, branded&nbsp;films, music videos etc —&nbsp;into a full-fledged career&nbsp;too. And having a brand’s backing ensures timely and&nbsp;substantial payment. “Plus,&nbsp;apart from the money, such&nbsp;projects help you build&nbsp;a brand for yourself as a&nbsp;creative person, and to&nbsp;experiment with a space&nbsp;you might be unsure of&nbsp;attempting directly on film,”&nbsp;he reasons.Makhija’s stance is just&nbsp;as practical. “Until there is&nbsp;a financial model in place,&nbsp;there will be no money to be&nbsp;made o these products. So&nbsp;the money needs to be made&nbsp;elsewhere and channeled&nbsp;into the short films without&nbsp;expectation of returns. And&nbsp;if you’re entering the field&nbsp;to make money, then try&nbsp;to make films for brands&nbsp;instead since they will&nbsp;pay you upfront for your&nbsp;services,” he says, likening&nbsp;the short film boom in India&nbsp;to the ’90s indie film boom&nbsp;in America. “There was little&nbsp;money coming in, even less&nbsp;being made, people were&nbsp;working for passion, for free,&nbsp;and there was immense&nbsp;exploitation of the most&nbsp;talented.”That last statement&nbsp;pretty much sums up the&nbsp;year for Makhija, who — on&nbsp;account of the four films&nbsp;he’s made this year — has&nbsp;had his bank account hit a&nbsp;ten-year low. “I don’t have&nbsp;money for rent from March,&nbsp;and I’m scrambling for odd&nbsp;jobs. But at the same time,&nbsp;I’ve enjoyed unprecedented&nbsp;artistic freedom this year,&nbsp;and that’s because there was&nbsp;such little money at stake,”&nbsp;he says. “I only hope we can&nbsp;discuss short films as art and&nbsp;not as commerce. That’s the&nbsp;only way we&nbsp;can sustain the&nbsp;medium.”Best short films on the webNayantara’s Necklace

In the Ramayana,&nbsp;Ahalya — the wife of sage&nbsp;Gautama — catches the&nbsp;eye of Lord Indra, who&nbsp;disguises himself as the&nbsp;sage to woo her. Ahalya&nbsp;and Indra are both cursed&nbsp;by Gautama when he&nbsp;learns of her infidelity.&nbsp;Sujoy Ghosh brilliantly&nbsp;adapts this story with his&nbsp;own twist.&nbsp;

Devashish Makhija&nbsp;sends out a spine-chilling&nbsp;message about apathy,&nbsp;using mobile cameras and&nbsp;webcams. Agli Baar talks&nbsp;about how we don’t take&nbsp;another person’s problems&nbsp;seriously if they don’t affect us directly.&nbsp;

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You might be watching more short films than ever, but that doesn’t mean it has become a financially viable craft.