Bandra Film Festival screens Vikrant Massey and Sayani Gupta’s short Detour

As the Bandra Film Festival (BFF) enters its second year, it has joined hands with Pocket Films to curate and present a series of short films on its official YouTube channel.

The first film to be showcased from the partnership is writer-director Sumi Mathai’s Detour, which stars popular artistes Vikrant Massey and Sayani Gupta. It was released last week on the YouTube channel.

A statement from the festival organizers said, 'The film is about two strangers who meet by a twist of an algorithm and realize they have more in common than they would have imagined. Together they find out what it means when two people form an unlikely yet beautiful connection in the middle of the night.'

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Pooja Kohli Taneja, artistic director at BFF, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Pocket Films. They have been acing shorts for a long while now and there is much to learn, absorb and integrate.

"Bandra Film Festival has been curating a diverse range of films for a year now, Pocket Films will help us with the selection of shorts and understanding the format better.

"The timing has also turned out to be perfect. As we celebrate our first anniversary we have a partner to share it with.”

Saameer Mody, managing director at Pocket Films, said, “We at Pocket Films are happy to associate with FilmKaravan and the Bandra Film Festival as it throws the spotlight on hand-picked and path-breaking short films. This initiative will encourage our short-film makers to create quality content and hope for a successful career in the industry.

"We look forward to presenting some amazing short films from our catalogue to the discerning audiences through the Bandra Film Festival over the year.”

BFF, which has actor Abhay Deol and New York-based journalist, author and festival director Aseem Chhabra on its advisory board, was kick-started in February 2021 and has so far showcased 51 films from around the country across multiple genres, languages and formats.

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The festival presents films in three categories — Hidden Gems, Off the Beaten Path and New Discoveries.