‘SHORT FILMS ARE CREATIVE’

Avika Gor talks about winning an award for her short film with her good friend Manish Raisinghan

Avika Gor is on cloud nine. Her short film, I Me Myself won the Best Short Film Award at the Berlin film festival recently. She had co-produced, cowritten and acted in the short film with her good friend Manish Raisinghan.

“We took the same film to the Cannes film festival this year too. It’s our first international award. This is also special as it is our (Manish and her) first award and that too, as film-makers. It is such a huge deal and an unimaginable honour. I cried the whole night when I heard that we won.” Avika and Manish have also made six other short films.

Talking about what appeals to her about short films, she says, “I think short films are creative and give you the freedom of telling stories that you want to. People are always in a hurry and want entertainment on the go, and short films cater to that. New film-makers can take a shot as budgets are usually not high. We have shot a web series too and are working on many projects.”

Although Manish and she had initially started with zero budgets, Avika has plans to make more films. “Manish and I write, direct, shoot, edit, score and act in them. Initially, our friends would act for free when needed, and get locations for free. But now, we have a team in place, so the budgets have shot up. We shot for three shots in Switzerland and Cannes, France, when we were there earlier this year. We wanted to get into every aspect of film-making, which is how all of this began,” she says.

Avika is doing a course on screenplay and loves to be behind the camera. While she has co-directed short films with Manish,she says she might direct one herself too. As for acting on the tube, she reveals that, “There will be an announcement soon. I will be returning to acting on TV.”

People are always in a hurry and want entertainment on the go, and short films cater to that. AVIKA GOR, ACTOR