Making films, winning awards – and some studying too

I started with photography when I was in the eighth. I was also interested in VFX, fire coming out of the hands, vehicles banging into each other and the like and so I began shooting with a mobile phone to shoot, processing it on my very basic computer with 2GB RAM and uploading it on YouTube for my friends.

I would also watch tutorials such as Video Copilot and Premier Pro on Internet, and try to follow the instructions. I went to my uncle Hitesh Kumar who works at a 3D mapping company and he gave me a book - Ron Brinkmann's The Art And Science Of Digital Compositing. My mother runs a production company and I learnt a lot from Gaurav Tanwar, who works as an editor there.

I read a lot of books on filmmaking and watch old films, especially American noir films of the 1940s. I don't like today's films. In those times, there was no VFX, only editing, so they worked on the story, on character build-up.

Everything in those films, every small expression, way of walking, was logical. But today's films are not logical - the characters contradict their actions. Films are a way to communicate with society, they are a way of storytelling. I want to make films which are logical.

In the beginning, my father was totally out of it. Until Class 11, I had no camera. So I kept pestering my father for one and he bought me a small one thinking my interest was momentary. But now I have a 600D DSLR camera and 50mm lens along with the GoPro Hero 3&4 cameras. My father has now also bought me a heavy duty 16 GB Ram. superfast computer with 23-inch LED screen.

I made my first film, City of Tears, in Class 9 - it took me six months and I finished it when I was in the tenth. That film was based on migrant labour. I wanted to focus on the unheard voices of our society. I spoke to many NGOs, had many interviews and bytes. The second film was Breaking the Silence on bullying. Now I have made my third film, Jailbird, and I am getting a good response. It is based on the pressures that children face in Class 11 and 12 from their parents to be an engineer or a doctor, leaving them little time to focus on their hobbies. I, too, face a similar situation. My dad supports my filmmaking, but my mother wants me to concentrate on my studies.

So I have to plan my schedule accordingly. For instance, I am going to Bikaner for two days for the screening of Jailbird. I am going to miss my studies so I took a holiday today to complete my backlog. My regular schedule leaves me little time for filmmaking - I wake up at 4.30, and study till 6.30, or I go to sleep at 2 a.m. and wake up at 6.30, before leaving for school. In the evening, there are tuitions. At night, I get some time to read my filmmaking books. Before I go to sleep - my parents don't know about this - I watch films that I have downloaded on my iPod for 10 minutes. It takes me a week to complete a film.

I finished Jailbird in just 10 days before my Class 11 half-yearly exams started. I had taken three days' off, worked on the film, shot and edited it. Then after the exams were over I began working on the sound over the weekends.

Thankfully, in Class 10, I got 9.0 CGPA. But in the ninth, I got a CGPA of only 8.2 as I was concentrating too much on filmmaking.

After my Class 12, I want to study filmmaking. I will try to get into a school abroad - either the cinema studies school in Southern California or the London Film School, or FTII in Pune if I don't get in these. Next, I hope to work as an assistant director in a big feature film and then, make my own film. This line is tough.