Despite int'l honours, short films have no takers in India

CHENNAI: A growing number of makers of short films are making a mark in international fora but back home they get little recognition and have poor patronage. The Missing Colours,' which made it to the London Transgender Film Festival last year, was among half-a-dozen films screened at the Film Chamber on Saturday last. Earlier in the week, several short films on climate change and alternate energy sources screened at Alliance Francaise were watched only by college students and members of NGOs.
"My film was celebrated in London but 90% of the transgender community in Chennai is yet to watch it," says director Prashanth Kumar about The Missing Colours.' According to Arvind Kumar, who organised the fest at Alliance, "Neither theatres nor satellite television channels buy our films, and with no way to take our films to the people, the message our art conveys reaches only a select audience."
"DD has a budget for encouraging short films but can accommodate only a few. With thousands of visual communication students passing out every year, and making quality films, there is a need for the industry to exhibit them in popular media, hold short film festivals and contests," says director Vasanth. Pointing out that on an average one short film is being made in the state, director K Hariharan of L V Prasad Academy of Film and Television, says: "Short films posted on YouTube attract huge hits, and there are serious cyber competitions. But in India it is all confined to college culturals."
Suhasini Maniratnam, whose short films on DD were widely followed, says: "At some point in our lives all of us enjoy poems. It is a part of our cultural ethos. Short films are not for the elite alone. If we can make the December music season a huge success, we can celebrate short films as well on a wider platform."