DERU, a short film intends to paint the real picture with a serious message: Santosh V Kalyani, movie producer

ASHISH TIWARI TENNEWS

A short film ‘DERU’ received a special recognition at the Meraki International Short Film Festival, Bengaluru, 2017 from amongst 259 Short Films from 11 Countries and 13 States of India.

 

During a candid conversation with Ten News, Founder of the Character Development Initiative (CDI) and Producer of the movie Santosh V Kalyani revealed various facts about the critically acclaimed movie DERU.

 

TN: Your inspiration for making this film?

SK: We intend to create meaningful content which breaks through the media clutter by building awareness across all audiences, with an impactful, sound & everlasting message of substance.

Short Films like “DERU” are that large canvas which allows us to paint the real, reasonable picture without skyrocketing amounts spent on traditional mediums.

Impactful short films like DERU are a highly cost-effective way to gain huge social traction and visibility at a miniscule fraction of the traditional costa of delivering content.

 

TN: Movie is based on environmental issues. What was your main aim during the production of the movie?

SK: “DERU” was intended to be a valuable content & tool in developing amongst audiences, a sense of accountability, heightened consciousness & responsibility for the environment they live in & their own learning & conduct; whilst empowering and providing to them, direction to diligently make the right choices individually.

 

TN: What message did you want to convey through the movie?

SK: Like humans , plants too have emotions and are sensitive to pain and feelings. Humans have inhabited Mother Earth for many centuries. Natural calamities and disasters have impacted us in the past. New, man-made practices have evolved with the passage of time. This process of change has revolutionized everything.

But, our Mother Earth & Mother Nature has remained constant, as it is. Mother Nature functions on natural law. And natural law is a powerful regenerative process. It is a process of regeneration that continues and grows and is endless, if everyone agrees to the law and follows the law.

But, if you were to challenge the law, and you think you are going to change the laws of nature (wearing the mask of development), then you are bound to failure. And in that failure will be a lot of pain, because the natural law has no mercy. It is only the law.

And no matter what damage you think of and do to it, Mother Nature will re-generate, will re-green, will re-do everything that was here at one time, except there won’t be any humans; because Mother Nature has all the time in the world. Mankind does not.

TN: What do you think about the censorship scenario?

SK: There are many challenges for independent film makers to get Film certification from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), despite many changes over the years.

The process of Film Certification should be streamlined to smoothly certify films without any delays as there is a huge cost associated with such delays and affects independent film makers the most.

Now the process for applying has been made online, so we have no recourse but to just apply online and wait patiently for the certification while absorbing all the costs of delay.

 

TN:What are your future plans regarding film making?

SK: Our next project is already underway and the plans are on the drawing board. We hope to launch the project later this year and release it by next year.