‘IT’S LIKE THE HAIKU AND THE EPIC. ONLY SOME STORIES CAN BE TOLD WITH AN IPHONE,’ SAYS VETERAN FILMMAKER SHYAM BENEGAL

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. “The aerial shots are an integral part of the storytelling here. I would never have been able to make this movie without a helicopter before,” he says.

There’s tech involved in every stage, including post-production fundraising — Varghese raised ₹8 lakh through crowdfunding over 10 weeks — and distribution.

Zoo might never have found an audience without the OTT platforms like Netflix, Varghese is set to tour the film circuit, and is hoping to make it to such a platform too.

TINY TALES

“In terms of both the making and the consumption of cinema, smaller, digital devices are the future,” says Meenakshi Shedde, film curator, critic and South Asia consultant to the Berlin film festival. “The audience is more willing to experiment, and is open to different kinds of stories. As phones and cameras become smaller, shooting with phones and natural light will become less of a challenge and will allow, in fact, for a greater degree of realism, grittiness or intimacy in a scene.”

Liberation from heavy technology has democratised filmmaking, Shedde adds, making it cheaper and allowing a lot more variety in the kinds of stories being told.

Seasoned filmmakers are revelling in this freedom too. Vikramaditya Motwane shot Trapped (2016) on the Red Dragon digital camera. “It allowed me to shoot even