The 39-year-old filmmaker has made the film with financial support from his friends and family but now is looking at crowdfunding to finish post-production and release the movie.
Hyderabad-based director Sasi wanted to make an independent film on a low budget, but unlike other low budget films, he wanted to ensure it was a quality film. Sasi started working on ‘Sheesh Mahal’ a few years back and is now looking to crowdfund money to release it.
“Sheesh Mahal, primarily a Telugu film, is set against the International Children’s Film Festival in Hyderabad. It’s about how the lives of four people are connected with the film festival – Fakeer, a nine-year-old who is a rag-picker; Ramakrishna, a young documentary filmmaker; Lavanya, a teenage girl from Khammam; and Feroze, a canteen supervisor,” he explains.
Speaking about his influences, Sasi says, "Mira Nair's working style as an independent filmmaker and her type of realistic cinema is what I love. I really admire her."
The 39-year-old filmmaker has made the film with financial support from his friends and family but now is looking at crowdfunding to finish post-production and release the movie. Ask him how he made the film on a Rs 25 lakh budget and Sasi says, “We shot in more than 30 locations in Hyderabad in ‘guerilla’ style. We shot with a 5D without any additional equipment, conventional lighting or production setup. We finished shooting, editing and dubbing the film in a little less than seven lakh rupees.”
Sasi, who is a well-known ad and corporate filmmaker, was keen that he premieres Sheesh Mahal to the three greats of Tamil cinema – K Balachander, Balu Mahendra and Bharathiraja. “When I was a kid their films inspired me to look at life for stories. Unfortunately, I missed that. I am now planning to have a premiere for Bharathiraja and other directors in Chennai,” he says.
He is raising about Rs 5 lakhs through crowdfunding to complete the film and submit it to various film festivals. “The festivals we’re looking at are IFFI Goa, IFFK Kerala, Dubai Film Festival, Sundance, Slamdance, Asian International Film Festival Mumbai,” says the director, about the film which was shot in 27 days.
There have been numerous well-known people who have worked on Sheesh Mahal. The music director for the film is Vivek Sagar while sound design has been done by Sanal George (an FTII alumni). Acclaimed actor, lyricist, composer and screenwriter Piyush Mishra (Gulaal and Gangs of Wasseypur fame) is writing two Hindi songs for free for them. Hyderabad Blues actress and independent producer Elahe Heptullah has dubbed for a Deccani Urdu character in the film.
“Indie filmmaker and cinematographer Rajeev Ravi (Dev D, Gulaal, Gangs of Wasseypur fame) has promised us to help in promotion with his resources.Indian Ocean singer Rahul Ram has sung one song. We are trying to involve the best crew possible to fine tune it. Hyderabad-based entrepreneur Snehal Jangala joined us as a producer and has invested in the film,” explains Sasi as he starts his crowdfunding campaign.
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