Ashvin Kumar- Noted Indian filmmaker in Goa

Ashvin  Kumar- Noted Indian filmmaker in Goa

 

As appeared in the Find All publication July 2011

Young enthusiasts who are interested in the creative field of filmmaking will now get an opportunity of a lifetime. Goa-based Ashvin Kumar, award-winning Indian writer-director is soon to conduct a filmmaking workshop titled 'Story to Screen'. The five-day workshop is an intense course on the art and craft of cinema, its history, aesthetics and language.
Click here for more details of the workshop to be held from 11th to 15th August, 2011

Ashvin believes that the essence of making a good film lies in creating an emotional connect with the audience which comes by creating a good story, well shot, performed and edited. 'Story to Screen' is not only for fresh aspirants but also for professionals. It provides versatile tools, which may be applied across a variety of film formats from home-movies to commercial films.

While certainly not the Bollywood type, Ashvin is the youngest Indian filmmaker to be nominated for an * Oscar. He began his career as an actor, then as director in theater and film editor. He is armed with a degree in Media and Communications from the University of London and started one of the first digital post-production studios in India. Presently, he runs his office and studio from Candolim although he frequently travels to the far corners of India and also overseas to shoot his films.

He draws inspiration from Chaplin, Hitchcock and Satyajit Ray for technique and films from China and Iran for their universality and storyline. Although he briefly attended the London , F i I m School,  he

opted out and invested the rest of his course fees into his first film 'Road To Ladakh', which is described below. Going by his own experiences, he strongly believes in learning on-the-job and a self-taught process that is a life-long learning curve. He ventured into editing, producing, acting and directing plays and short films.

Ashvin's films cover a wide spectrum from fiction to feature documentaries, thrillers and films for children. They are as short as 15 minutes and as long as 86 minutes. His first film, was also his student Jilm called 'Road to Ladakh',  

a  48 minute' featurette  which he scripted and directed himself, starring Irfan Khan and Koel Purie. Making this film in the high altitude of Ladakh proved eventful and was a huge learning experience for Ashvin. It was later shown at Vancouver, Paris, Raindance and LA Shorts International film festivals.

His second film, 'Little Terrorist', became the first short film to get a theatrical release in India. Ashvin Kumar is the first Indian to be nominated at the European Film Academy and 'Little Terrorist' was selected for over 130 film festivals and won awards in 25 of them, including the British Academy of Film and Television Award (BAFTA).

Ashvin persuaded a foreign national crew, on the strength of his scripts, to fly from Europe to the Ladakh desert and to the Rajasthan desert on their own cost to help him make both these films for he was

 

still a student and short of funds. Several members of both those international crews have worked on his subsequent films.

His first feature film shot in the jungles of North India, The Forest' is a thrilling suspense-drama with an ecological message. It was premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose and soon after at Cannes Market in 2009. A trailer can be seen on www.theforestmovie.com 

His most recent film, 'Inshallah, Football' is a feature documentary about a talented Kashmiri Muslim footballer and his angst with the Indian government's refusal to give him a passport to train with Pele's Club in Brazil. This film made it to the Pusan and won a special jury mention at the Dubai international film festival.

About the same time, Ashvin was invited by The Doon School, where he was a student, to make a film commemorating its 75'" Anniversary. The film 'Dazed in Doon' is a coming-of-age story of a schoolboy at the Doon and features a cast and crew of students who were trained on the job by Ashvin and worked at a professional level with an international crew.

Ashvin says that teaching school children film making was one of the best experiences of his life. He is presently working on a project that shall seek an original point of view on conflicts and childhood encouraging children to tell their own stories using the medium of cinema.

Ashvin Kumar is now prepared to set Goa on fire with his filmmaking course 'Story to Screen' which will be held from the 11th to the 15'" of August, at Art Chamber, Calangute. Applications are arriving from all over the country. There is an early bird discount and a student discount, so apply early (www.facebook.com/storytoscreen) or email film(@alipur.com. If this event is a success, he hopes to expand this into a regular activity, adding on courses in cinema appreciation and a practical short-filmmaking course. Goa, host to the International Film Festival of India, has just a couple of filmmakers who have made films. With this opportunity being offered to Goans, it would indeed be sad if those interested in this art form turn a blind eye and a deaf ear! Let's wish Ashvin Kumar, noted Indian film maker, who is very much at home in Goa,  all the  best in  his future ventures!

By Nancy De Souza

some more Photographs