An independent filmmaker based in Shimla Siddharth Chauhan’s short film ‘Pashi’ has been selected for the Rhode Island International Film Festival— an Oscar qualifying film festival.
Chauhan, 27, had previously won the Satyajit Ray Short Film Award at the London Indian Film Festival recently for his short film ‘Papa’.
Speaking about ‘Pashi’, Chauhan said, “The film has been selected to compete at the Rhode Island International Film Festival which is scheduled to be held in August in the United States.”
“Since this is an Oscar qualifying film festival, if the short film wins an award therein, Pashi will be directly nominated for the Academy Awards for the best short film category,” he added.
He added that this will the film’s first international premiere and that Pashi is the only film from India to have been selected this year.
The word ‘pashi’ means a trap in the Pahari dialect spoken in Rohru region of Shimla district and is an ancient technique used by villagers for hunting birds and animals.
“Chauhan said his childhood memories in his village Dhanoti inspired him to make this film.”
The story is about a young boy (Chetan), who learns about the hunting technique from his old grandmother (Savitri) and starts practicing it. His friend (John) encourages him while his mother is worried about his future.
The film was primarily shot in Sunta Lodge, a wooden mansion in Khalwan village. Some parts were however filmed in Dhanoti village neat Tikker.
Chetan Kanwar, a Class-12 student at Chapslee School, Shimla and John Negi, a model-cum-actor from Rampur have played the lead roles. Besides, Kamayani Bisht, a professor of English and Savitri Devi Sunta also feature in the film.
The story is about a young boy (Chetan) who is excited about having learned the technique of trapping birds from his old grandmother (Savitri). His friend John is an accomplice in the fun the duo have but Chetan’s mother is worried about his future.
The filmmaker has drawn inspiration from his childhood memories spent at his native village Dhanoti in Nawar Valley of Rohru to make this short film. The film is shot in the backdrop of the valleys native villages.
Siddharth Chauhan Short Film “PASHI” made it to Oscar Qualifier RIIF Festival.
More accolades seem to be coming to Himachal as another short film by director Siddharth Chauhan has been selected for an international film festival. Pashi, a Himachali short film has made it to Rhode Island International Film Festival this year. This is an Oscar qualifying film festival and if Pashi bags an award in this festival, the film can be nominated for Oscar in Short Film category.
This 30 minutes short drama is based on a boy’s life who learn the technique of capturing the birds from his grandmother and starts practicing that. The spoken language in the film is a Himachali dialect of upper Shimla district.
The festival is an official Oscar Qualifying Film Festival and Pashi is the only film from India to be have been selected for this prestigious festival this year.
An award winning film at this festival gets a nomination for competing at the Academy Awards for the Best Short Film category, also known as the Oscar Awards, the world’s most prestigious awards for film making.
“This is a dream come true and an unparalleled honor for all of us,” says Siddharth, an independent film maker from Shimla.
About of filmmaker
Siddharth Chauhan, born in 1990, is an award-winning Indian independent filmmaker from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. He was awarded the “Youth Achiever” award by Hindustan Times Group in August 2014. Chauhan has not received any professional training in this field. His films have been screened across countries including Sarajevo, England, the US, Belarus, Indonesia, New Zealand, Italy, and France. He is the youngest and the first independent filmmaker from Himachal Pradesh to have continuously taken his locally produced films outside India.
His latest film, PaPa, premiered at the IDSFFK 2016 International Film Festival of Kerala, where it won the Best Short Fiction Award. His filmmaking style is inspired by the grade filmmaking movement, as seen in PaPa, which received the Best Film Award “for its innovation in narrative gesture and wicked understanding of human behavior.” The film later also won the Satyajit Ray Award for the Best Film at the London Indian Film Festival 2017 ” for its mature storytelling which balances a realistic sense of frustration and claustrophobia, with a finely nuanced thread of subtle and deadpan humor. – Jury, LIFF”.
“PASHI Short Film Poster”
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