Aditya Anand from Bihar, Rochelle Potkar from Maharashtra and Rohit Tandon from Punjab have become the first winners of Pocketwala's unique contest for web-series ideas launched in June.
The winning ideas and script will be developed by the in-house team at Zinglin, a short-video app from UFO Moviez, to create original web-series. UFO Moviez is India's largest digital cinema distribution network and in-theatre advertising platform. It is also an investor in Cinestaan Digital Private Limited, which runs this website.
Anand, whose script titled Niddra, or Sleep, was adjudged the best, was overjoyed by his victory. "After the COVID era, we all needed an energy booster and this has turned out to be just that," he said.
The win gives Anand, a film school graduate from Patna, a chance to break into the entertainment industry. "I had not expected this when I was sitting by my laptop and saw the news about a contest and decided to register just like that," he said.
Potkar, a poet, critic, editor and screenwriter from Mumbai, won the first prize for best idea with Anthology of Bombay Stories: Slice of Life. While the win gives Potkar a chance to see her idea transformed into a series, she is donating the prize money for the education of needy students, in keeping with a pledge she made during the Ganesh festival in September.
Thanking Pocketwala, she said, "My hope as a storyteller and screenwriter is a chance to pitch to production houses all the screenplays that I am working on. I hope for fewer closed doors and more open windows."
Tandon, the final winner, is a doctor by profession at the Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana. His idea, Outnumbered, which emerged from his work as a medical professional, won the second prize for best idea.
Also a life member of the Screenwriters' Association (SWA), Dr Tandon said, "I feel happy and content that my idea has been recognized and given full attention. I would like to see it ultimately become a movie, which is always a scriptwriter's dream."