HYDERABAD: Three youngsters met over a cup of tea and that stretched for hours and more tea as they got immersed in discussing their passion for films.

Little did they realise that their very first venture would get them recognition and be in line for a grand prize.

V. Rakesh Chowdary, D. Ravi Kumar and N. Rajanikanth are the three whose maiden venture `Rhythm,' a one-minute film on capabilities of the differently abled was selected for the final round of the All-India One Minute Film Making Competition organised by the Ability Foundation, Chennai.

The contest was part of the recent International Disability Film Festival that had stalwarts like Mani Ratnam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Jaya Bachchan and others participating. `Rhythm' is among 50 entries chosen for the finals of the 1,000 entries received and is the only one from Andhra Pradesh.

Three days of planning

"We met up and decided to do something. When we saw the advertisement, we decided to participate.

All it took was three days of planning and a single day shoot with a borrowed camera from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. My cousin and his friends were the child actors," explains Rakesh, the director (Ph: 98662500306).

"He forgot he is differently abled. Why make him recall it?" is the message at the end. Rhythm has 20 frames with a background score downloaded from Net and cost the makers Rs. 2,000. "We were plagued by self-doubts but once we started shooting it was smooth," says Rakesh.

Rakesh is an engineering dropout, while Rajanikanth, the art director, too dropped out of the Fine Arts course at JNTU and his classmate Ravikumar, cinematographer, is a photography graduate from JNTU.

"We enjoyed working together and want to make more films. We are open to any offer," they say.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail