From a Community dinner to a 'community' film!

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In NID, after every big festival there is a community dinner organised, where the dishes of that particular region are served to the whole community. It was the Onam Community dinner in 2010.
I happened to sit next to one of my seniors, Sanaa. The conversation started with pleasantries and moved on to specifics,
"So what is your next project?" asked Sanaa.
I replied, "I am looking for subjects for my documentary. I am confused."
Sanaa thought about for a moment and asked "Have you heard about this 'criminal' theatre group which is based here in Gujarat?"
That sounded very new: ' a criminal theatre group'. The subject sounded very interesting because I knew very little about it. This conversation at the community dinner started the process...
I looked it up on the internet...I came in contact with people working on this issue. Then I visited the community in Chharanagar. The tribe is called 'Chhara' and the group is called 'Budhan theatre. I made good friends there.
 For the next 6 months I kept visiting them on weekends and 'Budhan Diaries' was the final product which came out. It's a 24-minute documentary which I am sharing with this post.

So, from that one random conversation at the community dinner at NID, it went on to become a community's film! Thanks Sanaa :)

('Budhan Diaries' has been screened at the Jeevika Documentary film festival-2011, Delhi, Cine Fresco International Film Festival-2011, Kolkata, Madurai International Film festival-2011, Madurai, Infocus Film fest-2012, Loyola Hyderabad and Mumbai International Film Festival-2012. The film also got picked by the video channel 'India Docs' on youtube. It won the 'Special Jury mention ' Award at Jeevika.)
Watch it...



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