Short films should be clubbed together, released theatrically: Director Tarun Dudeja

Director Tarun Dudeja's latest short film Listener, which travelled to film festivals in United States and Germany, was released digitally earlier this week. But he feels the audience in India should be able to watch short films on the big screen too.

Listener, featuring the tale of a storyteller and a listener, is presented by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films — a digital platform.

Asked if short films should be released on the big screens as well, Dudeja told IANS, a news agency, "Of course, it would feel great to see your work on the big screen. So, yes, short films should release theatrically.

"You can make an anthology of sorts for five to six films and release them under one umbrella. It will give the audience much more variety and at the same time, it would be a great chance for small filmmakers to showcase their talent and work," he added.

Though he also feels that with so much of digital penetration, platforms like YouTube and Facebook "maximise your reach, which theatrical release might restrict in some way".

On the release, Raja Banerji, assistant vice president of marketing, Pernod Ricard India, said, "We have seen how the short film industry has grown and evolved over the past few years and we are glad that our platform (Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films) is a perfect destination for meaningful and creative shorts.

"These films are not only attracting great audience but also are receiving multiple awards and recognitions in India and across the world."

Listener was also screened at various film festivals.

On making the film, Dudeja said, "I had an idea since March 2015. I registered the script and started pitching it to my friends then producers. Luckily, I got producers soon and we shot the film over a period of two days in July 2015.

"In order to maintain the feature film quality, we exhausted most of our budget. So the film got stalled for a couple of months.

The film's team sent one work-in-progress copy to the eighth edition of the Jaipur International Film Festival where it won the Best Cinematography award.

"We raised funds and finished the post-production in March 2016. After this, we started the festival round with the film getting selected by various prestigious film festivals like International Short film Week, Regensburg, Germany, New York Indian Film Festival and International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala," said the director.

Starring Kumud Mishra, Yusuf Hussain, Shivani Tanksale and Shashank Arora, the short has been produced by Sanjeev Kumar Nair.