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Classmates act out dream
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A group of young men who studied together for their Visual Communication course have come together to make a movie called D 17. They tell shilpa nair anand how they teamed up for it
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Unity is strength The crew of D 17 have finished their work and the movie starts shooting next month
This one should ideally be called ‘Friends’ or ‘Classmates’, for this is the story of six classmates who got togther for a film, no they are not wannabe stars. They are going to make a film – D 17. Chidambaram Palaniappa
n, Manu Radhakrishnan, Prabath E. K., Vinod Roshan, Neeraj P. G., and John George Stephen are the six pals with a dream called D 17.
Classmates
Going back a bit in time. The guys belong to the first batch of post graduate degree in Visual Communications of Amrita School of Arts and Sciences which passed out in 2006. Following which, like all classmates in all colleges, each went their way charting a different course but with a conscious decision that they would get together someday, sometime for a film, or rather to make a film. Chidambaram Palaniappan and Manu Radhakrishnan became Manu-Chidambaram and they worked as assistant directors under B. Unnikrishan for the Suresh Gopi starrer ‘Smart City’. Prabath E. K. and Vinod Roshan headed to Chennai to Rajeev Menon’s institute, ‘Mindscreen’ to hone their skills as cinematographers and were to become Vinod-Prabath. John George Stephen joined the media and worked with a Malayalam television channel as a newscaster and sub-editor and Neeraj went on to become a graphic designer.
Scripting
All this while, from the time they finished their PG course, the Manu-Chidambaram duo was working on a script for a film (it took them 15 months). Once the script was ready, George came on board as production coordinator. And since there was time till Vinod and Prabath finished their course, they got down to the business of finalising the nitty-gritty.
Neeraj came overboard with his design firm, Red Hued Dream, for the publicity designs. And the core team was more or less complete.
Then came the producer Eldo Joesph, an architect, who was “looking to produce a good film with a good script and he liked our script and was prepared to produce the film,” says George. The film, according to the team, is a completely commercial film.
“We had joined the course with a passion for the medium of filmmaking and that is what brought us together in the first place,” says Vinod.
20-somethings
What strikes you when you see and talk to this team of 20-somethings is their confidence. It is hard to not believe them when they say they have a good thing on their hands. Tell them that it is a huge risk they are taking, and they would be the first to admit it without a trace of overconfidence. “We had worked on short films during the course while at college and in that we knew each other. And when we left college we knew in the back of our minds that we would come together to make a film,” says George.
Going by the way the team swears by the script, it may well be the hero. The script was part of the ‘Film Bazaar’ at the International Film Festival of India at Goa and “the response to the script was good.
At the festival we were able to interact with representatives of international production houses and they evinced interest in the film. Going by the interest that the script has generated there will be many takers for the final output,” says a very optimistic Chidambaram.
He is only willing to divulge that the story pertains to things that as youngsters they can relate with.
“We realise there is no point in going overboard talking of things that people cannot relate to,” he adds.
Shooting schedule
The shooting is scheduled to start on March 12. Ajmal Ameer (of ‘Pranayakalam’ fame) and Sandhya (of ‘Kaadhal’ fame) as the male and female lead, besides KPAC Lalitha, Atul Kulkarni, Salim Kumar, Sabarinath, newcomers Siddarth (one of the winners of Amritha TV’s best actor show) and Thejus Geroge.
The technical team that they have managed to put together would be the envy of many a veteran filmmaker. The editor of the film is Arunkumar who has worked with Priyadarshan in some of his latest films such as ‘Bhool Bhulaiyya’ and ‘Bhagam Bhaag’ besides several blockbusters. The ‘thrills’ or stunts will be by Peter Hien (the man behind the thrilling thrills of ‘Anniyan’ and ‘Sivaji’) and the make up will be by Pattanam Rasheed.
The dialogue writer and composer are newcomers Ashley Orrotiyil and Jomon Joseph respectively. Jomon has assisted his brother Alphons in several films and this will be his maiden independent venture. The lyricist is Jofy Tharakan.
The costume designer is Asha Vasudevan and the art direction will be by Shaiju T. K.
For the team that they have been able to muster, they are grateful to their mentors for having put them on to the right people. Although the team is not ready to divulge what the film is about, with a curiosity provoking title such as D 17, they swear by the script. Doesn’t the fact that they are rank newcomers rankle them? “Not at all. John Paul sir told us ‘start from what you know and the rest will follow’. It has helped us tremendously and K. G. George sir too was very supportive.
Mentors
They never forced their ideas on us, and for that we are grateful,” says Chidambaram. Vinod and George agree with this take of their mentors.
“What we shared with them went outside the purview of a teacher-student relationship.”
Team D 17 thus gears up for the joys and the heartaches of making a film.
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