Mumbai, Feb 12 (IANS): Director Amish Srivastava opens up about his short film 'Biscut' that revolves around elections in Uttar Pradesh and how the core issues turned out to be caste and religion in place of development and social welfare.
The protagonist of the movie is a Dalit, named, Bhura, played by Amarjeet Singh, who was last seen in the web series 'Mirzapur' and 'Paatal Lok'. Biscuit baker Sattan is essayed by Chetan Sharma and it also features Chittaranjan Tripathy of 'Sacred Games'.
Amish, who lives in Virginia, USA, shares about his inspiration behind making this short film: "I am so lucky to be born and grew up in India, the world's largest democracy, and then I moved to America 14 years back in the oldest democracy in the world. As a journalist, I have travelled to Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq and seen close conflicts. Even if it may not be perfect, democracy is the best form of government available. But it should be a real democracy. Free and fair elections, institutions, and the media. And it is not functioning in most of the world as it should in its basic form."
He adds on the scenario of democratic set-up worldwide and says that the democratic leaders are finding ways to stick to power, and they fail to show empathy to the most significant cause of everything - rising inequality.
"While I was travelling worldwide, a song by the famous Beatles singer John Lennon 'Power to the people', kept ringing in my ears. As a journalist by training and a filmmaker, music lover by heart, all this information was pressuring me to develop a solution that empowers the weak without dealing with a revolution and civil war because that's what it ends up to be. People take it only up to a specific limit, and then there are no other ways."
'Biscut' was released in India on February 7 on the Gorilla Shorts YouTube channel.
The director shares further on his working experience with the actors and the difficulties faced by the entire crew while shooting in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh during summers. The entire crew and lead actors were stationed in Balrampur for about 10 days and the shooting was completed in seven days. The shooting took place in Surat Singh Deeh, a remote village of Balrampur. Villagers also played an important role in the film.
"I was worried. It was more than 45 degrees celsius and it was too hot. But these three people are actors who would do anything to live the characters they were written. So, I told them specifically that from Lucknow they have to come by car for 4 to 5 hours then - every day go to that remote village another one-and-a-half hours from the hotel at Balrampur. But they all supported me so well. So, we shot for a week - day and night, cooking food near the village - and no one had any demands."
He expresses his gratitude for the actors as well as villagers and adds: "They camouflaged with the lifestyle of the other crew members. I am grateful to them, and the reviews about their acting have been great. But the surprising element for me was another part.
"We still needed more than a dozen actors who played significant roles in the film. And we had to ask in the village. Whoever showed the interest, we cast them. While these three actors gave a brilliant and robust structure to the story, the presence of the actual villagers, none of them had seen a camera in their lives, gave a feel of reality. And that was a fantastic convincing flavour to the film."