Short and sweet

Tisca Chopra wanted to test her funny bone, only Bollywood had nothing to offer other than dark and dramatic. It didn't help either that some 45 films later, she was being offered roles of "bhabhi" or "beeji". "I'm not ready to be a fringe character floating around supporting what men are doing," says Tisca, whose last feature, The Hungry, an adaptation of Titus Andronicus, released on Amazon Prime. "Where are our stories that resonate?" In 2016, she established the production house, The Eastern Way, and adapted a Bhisham Sahni story into the short film Chutney. Playing the wicked wife who knows how to hold her husband's lover's attention with a morbid tale, the film has amassed over 120 million views since it was uploaded in November 2016. "The medium is very
democratising," says Tisca, having recently produced and acted in another short, Chhuri. "You have an idea and you don't need much money [to make it]. Film buffs can get together and make something, then improve upon it, because the medium allows you the bandwidth to experiment."
A canine romance set in Kashmir (Bruno & Juliet). A child whose passion to fly kites is limitless (Amdavad Ma Famous). A police officer who dances like nobody's watching (Taandav). A runaway bride in an engaging confrontation with her husband-to-be (Unarranged). These are some of the most popular shorts online. The last two years have seen the medium grow exponentially with dedicated YouTube channels for shorts. Since Large Short Films (554,000 subscribers) emerged five years ago, there are now more outlets for shorts, including Terribly Tiny Talkies (176,000), HumaraMovie (311,000), Pocket Films (900,000) and Muvizz.com (29,000). Even film studios now want a piece of the pie. Manish Mundra's Drishyam Films has two on its YouTube channel, Eros Now recently launched its first, Toffee, Tahirah Kashyap's directorial debut.

Shortcut to success

Many a cinematic journey has begun from shorts. Long before the advent of the internet, filmmakers from Satyajit Ray to FTII alumni such as Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sriram Raghavan dabbled with the format and won acclaim. Later, ad filmmakers forayed into Bollywood where their ability to tell stories was crisply welcomed and needed. Today, having your short released online is a definitive way to showcase your potential and bag a feature. Ask Hardik Mehta. After assisting Vikramaditya Motwane on Lootera and Vikas Bahl on Queen, he headed to Ahmedabad in 2014 for a shoot documenting the city's architectural heritage only to chance upon a charismatic child with kites on his mind. By 2016, his documentary short Amdavad Ma Famous had travelled to the prestigious HotDocs Festival in North America and also won the National Award. It was also the first Indian short available on Netflix. Mehta, who has a degree in food and dairy technology, now makes his feature debut with Drishyam Films, which also released his third short, The Affair, online.
With his feature debut done, one might presume Mehta wouldn't touch shorts, but that's not the case. "There is this perception," he says, "that if you keep making shorts, Bollywood won't take you seriously." . "When I was invited by the French Academy of Cinema (Academie des Cesar), I met filmmakers who have made just short films all their life. It's a genre you can become a complete master in."
Content over clicks
Shorts came as a new lease of life for filmmaker Devashish Makhija. He had waited eight years-almost four at Yash Raj Films making an animated film-to get his directorial debut. "I just wanted to show people I have stories to tell, the medium doesn't matter," he says. The liberated domain of shorts was perfect. "There was no specified target audience and prior expectation of the story." Makhija modified one of his film scripts into a short and made El'ayichi, starring Nimrat Kaur. With five shorts under his belt, Makhija has banked one and will shoot another in September; this after making his feature debut with Ajji (2017) and wrapping another feature, produced by Muvizz.com. "Shorts are my life for now, forever," says Makhija. However, he is concerned that the short film boom is jeopardising the essence of the format-its freedom-by letting commerce and star power take precedence over content. "Suddenly everyone wants to make it with stars, cross 100 million views," he says. "That cannot be the benchmark. You are working backwards."
But like all forms of visual entertainment, shorts too need to be seen. A familiar face helps. How does one measure the success of a short? Makhija says there is no definite answer; his Agli Baar won the best short fiction award at the Mumbai International film festival in 2016 but has only 190,000 views, compared with the 1.9 million for Manoj Bajpayee starrer Taandav. He adopts what he says is a Kafka-esque approach to shorts. "Kafka was an accountant by day, he didn't write to pay his rent," says Makhija who does subtitles for Indian films releasing abroad. "I have only spent money [making shorts], not made any money till date."

Rahul Bhatnagar (in glasses) with the Natak Pictures team. Photo: Rajwant Rawat

Don't show me the money
Money doesn't drive Rahul Bhatnagar either, though he could do with more of it to not just produce more films but also to pay the crew. After having worked as a trainee on Habib Faisal's debut Do Dooni Chaar and as a copywriter at McCann Erickson for two-and-a-half years, the founder of the Delhi-based Natak Pictures decided to start the channel to share his stories. "Nowadays you have platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, which give you a boost and also a reality check on whether you are capable of [making a film]," says the 31-year-old. In his case, he can. Unarranged, one of the five shorts he has made, netted over three million views. Natak prides itself on its independent set-up, which so far has delivered films at miniscule budgets. "Most people are not charging me anything, they are all talents who are eager to explore," he says. As the lead writer and director of Natak, he hopes to release at least four shorts in 2018 and this time around aims to hit international film festivals.
Not every aspiring filmmaker will have the fiscal strength to go solo, some need an established platform. Calling itself a destination for "alternative content" and a "studio-cum-incubator lab", the HumaraMovie portal sticks to partnering with young fresh talent, getting their work visibility and, in some cases, even guidance from filmmakers such as Imtiaz Ali and Anurag Basu. Founded by Preety Ali, Pallavi Rohatgi and Vinay Mishra, the Humaramovie channel has produced over 400 shorts, some made on budgets as low as Rs 10,000. "We pull all kinds of favours in putting together a cast and crew," says Rohatgi. "Do or die, we have to have a short a week. Everybody has to wing it given the tight deadlines."
Natak Pictures and HumaraMovie are small players compared to Large Short Films (LSF), a channel funded by the beverage brand Pernod Ricard India, which on occasion holds special screenings and/ or a press conference to promote its shorts. But LSF too isn't it in for the money, says Raja Banerji, assistant vice president (marketing) of Pernod Ricard India. "We are spending on achieving what we set out to do: serve the appetite for original content," he says in an email interview. Having started out commissioning films, many by familiar feature filmmakers such as Sujoy Ghosh (Ahalya), Anurag Kashyap (That Day After Everyday) and Neeraj Pandey (Ouch), the channel now also acquires existing shorts, enabling it to release a film a week. "We initially commissioned content to credible film personalities, allowing the platform to develop an identity in the format," says Banerji. "During the process we realised some filmmakers wanted to create something original and powerful themselves."

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The long road head
There's no denying shorts are now a recognised form of entertainment. A leading film publication has already started handing out awards for the genre. Cinephiles will get to see more shorts by Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee, this time around on the theme of lust and love in Bombay Talkies 2, slated for release later this year. Independent filmmakers and writers are keen to collaborate with studios specialising in shorts. One of the foremost in the burgeoning scene is Terribly Tiny Talkies, which has worked with Amit Masurkar (of Newton fame), Vasan Bala (co-writer of Raman Raghav 2.0 and Bombay Velvet), Sonam Nair (Gippy) and Kanu Behl (Titli). Set up by Anuj Gosalia and Chintan Ruparel in 2015, TTT shorts have featured prominent actors, such as Anupam Kher, Jackie Shroff, Ali Fazal, Saqib Saleem and Neena Gupta. "You are only as good as your story and that's enough to seduce a bigger actor to come on board," says Sharanya Rajgopal, chief writer and creative producer of TTT. There's more that lures actors to the medium. "Feature films have coloured the storytelling ability of the industry. They bank on the success and profitability of having an actor on their poster," says Rajgopal, who worked in feature films for eight years. "Shorts give you the chance to be truly disruptive with the content."
With the digital space only expanding, the demand for content has risen. It's now more common to see brands partner with channels. Chhuri saw Tisca Chopra driving a Nissan Micra. TTT has worked alongside United Colors of Benetton (Life After and three more), Ola (Khujli), Girnar (Cheers) and Edelweiss Retail Finance (Naamkaran). The associations help the production units create more, but it's important that the films don't turn into commercials. "We have very strict guidelines as far as brand integration goes," says Rajgopal. "Actors are not seen endorsing a particular product. The brand never overpowers the narrative or [lets] its logo take over the screen." Apart from meeting its target of having at least eight shorts, TTT is venturing into web series and non-fiction programming.
As the hunt for likes, subscribers, comments and views rises, short film channels find themselves challenged. The economy of resources and time does not preclude the need for a sustainable model. Enjoying its most prolific phase, with mainstream actors and filmmakers all embracing the medium, short film channels now need to ensure that the films don't lose their intrinsic appeal: the ability to present the minutiae of everyday life with depth and without the burden of returns and distribution. It's what makes them edgier, watchable and repeatable.
Shortcut to success
Many a cinematic journey has begun from shorts. Long before the advent of the internet, filmmakers from Satyajit Ray to FTII alumni such as Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sriram Raghavan dabbled with the format and won acclaim. Later, ad filmmakers forayed into Bollywood where their ability to tell stories was crisply welcomed and needed. Today, having your short released online is a definitive way to showcase your potential and bag a feature. Ask Hardik Mehta. After assisting Vikramaditya Motwane on Lootera and Vikas Bahl on Queen, he headed to Ahmedabad in 2014 for a shoot documenting the city's architectural heritage only to chance upon a charismatic child with kites on his mind. By 2016, his documentary short Amdavad Ma Famous had travelled to the prestigious HotDocs Festival in North America and also won the National Award. It was also the first Indian short available on Netflix. Mehta, who has a degree in food and dairy technology, now makes his feature debut with Drishyam Films, which also released his third short, The Affair, online.
With his feature debut done, one might presume Mehta wouldn't touch shorts, but that's not the case. "There is this perception," he says, "that if you keep making shorts, Bollywood won't take you seriously.". "When I was invited by the French Academy of Cinema (Academie des Cesar), I met filmmakers who have made just short films all their life. It's a genre you can become a complete master in."