INTRODUCING MY SHORT – 0:0PM – Part – 1
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) really help me grow as a person and as a professional. It helped me broaden my horizon in many many aspects. I think i spent some of the golden days of my student days at TISS and i shall always be thankful to everybody who helped shape me as a human being. Its a lovely place to be in. In fact, it was at TISS that my creative side came to the fore. Thanks to the annual ‘QUINTISSENTIAL’ festival. In 1996, my group ‘BINDAAS’ won all the competitions.
Now, coming back to studies, since there was o much of exposure to so many good things that, in the second and final year, i too felt like doing something. So the rules were, any students opting to do a research was supposed to attend only 12 or 13 subjects. I was always bad in studies and i maintained it throughout my school days too. As i mentioned earlier that so many things were said and talked about while studying there, that i too felt like doing something seriously. I decided to take up the research project. I wanted to do a research on a subject that would hold my interest till its completion. Being specialising in medical and psychiatric social work, i though it was a mindblowing idea to do a research on post mortem servants. Till date i must have visited the morgue umpteen number of times. And everytime the PM servants as they are addressed even today have attracted my attention towards them. Most of the time, 90% of the times i have senn them drunk on work. Everytime i got a feeling as to how would it be to work as a post mortem servant? What is it like to cut open a fellow human being day in and day out? How do they cope with it? or do they? what kind of feelings they go through, or how would it have been when they must have cut open a dead body for the first time. So like these there were hundred of questions lingering in my mind. I wanted to know and study their mind. So very prodly, i went to Dr. Vimla Nadkarni, HOD, MPSW DEPT.
After verifying all the students topics they were called and guided as to what they should be doing and how should they be going about it. One fine afternoon it was my turn. I went to meet her at the said time. Feeling extremely proud that i will be finally appreciated for the kind of topic i had choosen to do a research on. But hey guys, to my surprise, Dr. Nadkarni told me that it was a morbid subject and i should do something on child sexual abuse or old age. I was even asked to meet Dr. Raju. He too tried to motivate me to do a research on old age people. But somehow i was not convinced. Three forth of the students doing research were doing research either on domestic voilence or child sexual abuse or a subject similar to someone or the other. We had a few meetings i was just not convinced. Another reason i was told was, it would be difficult for them to find a guide for me. I pleaded that maybe i should go and talk to someone in the forensic department and find one for myself. But all my requests fell on deaf ears. Though i did not complain, i too stuck to my subject and agreed not to do a research project, and attend for all the 15 or 16 subjects that students who were not doing research were supposed to do. Later on, as final year social work student all of us went for block field work and i had a great one month doing my internship in Himachal Pradesh with this NGO called ‘RUCHI’ ie. Rural Centre for Human interests run by Mr. Dharamveer Singh.
Tiss got over, i joined Jamia Millia islamia in Delhi for anothetr Post graduation. All throughout the topic of post mortem servants stayed in my mind. Every time my friends used to discuss about what each one of us wanted to do? my answer would be that i want to make a film on post mortem servants. Everybody used to laugh including my then sweetheart. Anyways, Life kept moving on. jamia got over with flying colors. “Yes, i was bad in theory here too, but was very good in practicals”. CUT to Bombay, i took up a job as an assistant director with a TV production house, but couldnt exist there for long… dekhte, dekhte dhai saal beet gaye. And i got my first job as an AD in films. Yes it was supposed to be ‘EK HASEENA THI’ to be directed by Sriram Raghavan. By now i had seen and experienced the ways of this industry. I wanted to do something of my own, as it would help me grow professionally, financially and thus in every other aspects of life. I was frustrated, as i had gone through a lot of shit. One of the actor producer who had started directng TV serials had cheated me of my 22,000/- rupees. I knew i had enough experience to direct on my own, afterall i was trained and educated in doing so, the whole reason to work as an AD was just to learn the ropes, but till now have been trapped as one, as trying to prove yourself to any producer is a big task, i understand the stakes involved in films are high, and why should any producer invest a few crores in me just like that? so working with RGV was again one of those moves wherin i thought I will work hard and climb my way up.
So coming back to my frustrations, we had finished the shoot of ‘Ek Haseena Thi’ i had time, i decided to take this opportunity to make a film for myself and see if i am in the right profession. If not, i had decided that i would pack up and go back to active social work. I was determined and i had a subject ready in my mind. It was about the people who work in the morgue. So within no time i had my script ready, letters were drafted to Kodak for sponsoring me the film. Ramani who was the assistant cameraman on EHT had readily agreed to shoot the film for me, free of cost of course. My only condition was to shoot it in a real morgue. I was headbent upon shooting it in a real morgue as i did not want to compromise on the location and the authenticity of the same.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
hey surya, have read your other posts about RGV and the Factory,but this post about how you made it to film making and your expereinces at the two institutes you attended. being a aspiring director and an ametuer writer myself, i found your journey to FActory helpful in many ways. But, how does one get to work in factory or for that matter assist any film maker? do writers like me who don’t know the technical aspects of film making get in to film making…
this is by far the best!!!
Vaah Suraybhi! Your story should be an inspirational one for us (well, for me)!
Anyway, kay hum aap ki short film dekh sakte hain?
:d
= striker saahab… when are we going to see the trailer of Surya’s movie on PFC? Reading this post has made piqued my interest… Surya, you should contact Vijay for entering your movie at IFFLA and t! for the SoCal Film Festival…
I loved this post! What made me laugh, though, was the idea that somehow childhood abuse or the plight of the aging is somehow less “morbid” than the honest work that the morgue workers do.
I am surprised that there would be any resistance to this subject, as well. I constantly watch documentaries by independent filmmakers, and this is one topic I wouldn’t mind watching, unlike some of the uninteresting films I watch year round….
oz/surya bhai, trying to figure out the DVD to mpg conversion.. a couple of the softwares i have don’t seem to be working out too great.. trying to find alternatives.. spent at least a couple of hrs on it today.. will continue to work my way thru it and get it online asap.. sorry for the delay
Zurya ko salam…=d>
Thanks Nidhi.
Kren _ Thats how it is man… in factory the ads usually come along with the directors. I personally d suggest u do a proper course, it wil help u in the long run, especially when u start off in this industry. Else its gonna be a tough ride.
HG – Aap jab dekhna Chahey sir.
t! – what is this SoCal film festival, lcan u let me know more about it???
Striker – No problems, whenever u can, do so…
Oz – Whats up bro?
Vasan – Shukriya shukriya, shukriya
hey surya,
have you seen martin scorsese’s ‘bringing out the dead’?..it stars nicholas cage playing a burnt out paramedic in the film..the journey of his character in the film is from hell and back.. and back to hell!! you can watch the film as a reference to study and understand the psyche of the character whose line of job is somewhat similar to that of a post mortem servant..get the dvd and watch it whenever you get free time..
Surya,
You can email me directly at trasies@socalfilmfest.com!
sahil i will… always keep suggesting good things dude..
t!
hi, i tried writing a mail on th address u asked me to, but some how the mail bounced back… this is what i wrote…Hiiiiiiiii,
so wassup t… is tht your name? trasies??? ok, now
that i have your mail id, do let me know as to how do
i go about the socal film fest??? do let me know i am
very curious…. in case if u need to talk to me, u
can call me on 9322247483 this is my cell number. by
any chance are u based in India??? i am in bombay.
waiting to hear from you soon, and thank you very much
for taking time out to read my posts.
warmest regards,
Surya
Surya, am so glad you did not give up after all the rejections and lack of support. Highlighting the issues of PM Servants( a very sad title for the guys)is very important and hats off to you for doing that. They are mostly invisible not only to the society as a whole but also social activists and people working on social issues. Keep up the good work and hope to see meaningful cinema from you.
Congratulations on winning the award!!!!!